Foreign Affairs

‘No Longer Trusts Anyone’: Iranian Officials Reportedly Gripped By Paranoia After Hezbollah Leader’s Assassination

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khameini (Screen Capture/VOA)

Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah last week has reportedly stirred paranoia among top Iranian officials and the country’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, according to Reuters.

Israel targeted Nasrallah in a significant airstrike against his bunker on Friday, marking the latest blow to an increasingly weakening Hezbollah, which has been attacking Israel since last year. Khamenei had reportedly warned Nasrallah that Israel was going to try to kill him and urged him to flee Lebanon in the days prior to his assassination, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Iran had already been concerned for years that Mossad, an Israeli intelligence agency, had infiltrated Tehran’s ranks, the outlet reported. Following Nasrallah’s death, that concern has grown larger — and Iranian officials have become worried about Khamenei’s safety, officials and sources close to the matter told Reuters.

“The trust that held everything together has disappeared,”  an Iranian official told Reuters.

“[Khamenei] no longer trusts anyone,” another source close to the Iranian regime told Reuters.

Authorities have opened investigations to see whether some Iranian officials or members of Iran’s military are compromised, another Iranian official told Reuters. The investigations are particularly centered around officials who travel or have family outside the country.

Authorities are reportedly suspicious of Iranian military members who have recently been in Lebanon, one of the officials told Reuters. One of the military members had recently been asking about Nasrallah’s location, raising eyebrows among other officials. That individual was arrested, along with several others, the official told Reuters.

Khamenei’s warning to Nasrallah — which was made through an Iranian military messenger who was with Nasrallah at the time of his death — followed a sweeping, targeted attack by Israel against Hezbollah, the official told Reuters. Thousands of Hezbollah operatives’ pagers and walkie-talkies randomly exploded in late September, which was likely an orchestrated remote detonation by Israel, although the country hasn’t claimed responsibility.

But Nasrallah — who often operated in bunkers underground in Lebanon — felt at the time that he was safe and trusted his security officials to protect him, even as Iranian officials relayed their concerns about his wellbeing, the official told Reuters. Khamenei made a second offer via his military messenger for Nasrallah to relocate to Iran, but Nasrallah expressed that he wanted to stay in Lebanon.

Following Nasrallah’s assassination and the devastating blows Hezbollah has recently suffered, the security situation with the terrorist group is now so fraught that they can’t even hold a public funeral for Nasrallah, according to four sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Reuters.

“No one can authorize a funeral in these circumstances,” one Hezbollah source bemoaned to Reuters.

Israel is expected to retaliate against Iran following a sweeping missile attack launched by Tehran on Tuesday, which largely failed due to interceptions from Israeli and U.S. forces. Though the timing and nature of a retaliatory strike isn’t clear, Israel has promised that there will be “consequences” for Iran.

“Iran made a big mistake – and it will pay for it,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said during a security cabinet meeting on Tuesday.

(Featured Image Media Credit: Screen Capture/VOA)