Iran’s religious leader Khamenei took action to secure his place in the attacks targeting Hezbollah leadership by Israel

DUBAI, September 29 — A day after Israel killed the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah group in an attack on Beirut, sources told Reuters that religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was taken to a safe place within Iran due to increased security.

The move to protect Iran’s top decision-maker was the latest show of tension among Iranian officials as Israel launches a series of devastating attacks on Hezbollah, Iran’s best-armed and best-equipped ally in the region.

Reuters reported this month that Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, the ideological guardians of the Islamic Republic, ordered all members to stop using any communications devices after thousands of pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah exploded.

Lebanon and Hezbollah say Israel is behind the pager and radio attacks. Israel neither denied nor confirmed its involvement.

Two regional officials briefed by Tehran who told Reuters that Khamenei had been transferred to a safe location also said Iran was in contact with Hezbollah and other regional proxy groups to determine the next steps after Nasrallah’s killing.

Due to the sensitivity of the issue, the sources declined to be identified further.

According to reports in the Iranian media yesterday, in addition to Nasrallah, the deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Abbas Nilforushan, was killed in Israel’s air strike on Beirut on Friday. Other Revolutionary Guard commanders have also been killed since the Gaza War broke out last year and violence flared elsewhere.

After Israel announced that Nasrallah was killed, Khamenei made a statement yesterday and said: “The fate of this region will be determined by the resistance forces, of which Hezbollah is at the forefront.”

“The blood of the martyr will not be avenged,” he said in a separate statement declaring five days of mourning to commemorate Nasrallah’s death.

Nasrallah’s death dealt a major blow to Iran, removing an influential ally that had helped Hezbollah become the linchpin of Tehran’s cluster of allied groups in the Arab world.

Iran’s network of regional allies, known as the ‘Axis of Resistance’, stretches from Hezbollah in Lebanon to Hamas in Gaza, Iran-backed militias in Iraq and the Houthis in Yemen.

Hamas has been fighting Israel for almost a year, since its fighters attacked Israel on October 7. Meanwhile, the Houthis fired missiles at Israel and ships sailing along Yemen in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. beach.

Hezbollah engaged in mutual clashes on the Lebanese border throughout the Gaza War and has repeatedly said that it will not stop until a ceasefire is reached in Gaza.

After the pagers and walkie-talkies were hit, an Iranian security official told Reuters that a large-scale operation was launched by the Revolutionary Guard to inspect all communication devices. He said most of these devices were either homemade or imported from China and Russia.

The official said Iran is concerned about infiltration by Israeli agents, including Iranians on Israel’s payroll, and a comprehensive investigation has already begun into personnel targeting mid- and senior-level members of the Revolutionary Guard.

In another statement he made yesterday, Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said that the United States played a role in the killing of Nasrallah as an arms supplier to Israel.

“Americans cannot deny their complicity with the Zionists,” he said in a statement carried by state media. — Reuters