Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has named three senior clerics as possible successors in case he is killed in the war with Israel, The New York Times reported, citing three Iranian officials familiar with his emergency war plans.
The unprecedented step reflects the seriousness with which the 86-year-old leader views the current threat environment, as Israeli airstrikes continue to target Iranian military and nuclear assets.
Khamenei, who is now operating from a secure underground location and communicating through a trusted aide, has also named backups for key military positions in case more senior commanders are killed, the NYT cited the officials as saying.
“Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba, also a cleric and close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, who was rumored to be a front-runner, is not among the candidates,” the report said.
The identity of the three clerics has not been disclosed, but the move is seen as an effort to ensure a swift and orderly succession via the Assembly of Experts if the supreme leader is assassinated or dies unexpectedly.
As Iran International previously reported, Khamenei was relocated to an underground bunker in Lavizan, northeast Tehran, shortly after the airstrikes began. His close family, including Mojtaba, are also at the facility. The transfer followed internal assessments of vulnerability at top levels of Iran’s leadership.
In a separate report, Iran International learned that Khamenei has delegated key powers to the Supreme Council of the Revolutionary Guards in what officials described as a wartime precaution, allowing critical decisions to proceed should the Supreme Leader become incapacitated.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have arrested a German national, Marek Kaufmann, for alleged spying near restricted military and nuclear sites in Markazi province, state-owned Mehr News reported Friday.
Mehr released a video showing Kaufmann, described as a dual-national Jewish tourist cycling through the region, speaking after his arrest. In the footage, he says he was aware he was near a military area and that taking photos or videos was not allowed. He adds that he sent his location to a friend. The video is heavily edited and does not include a clear confession.
At one point, Kaufmann says his Garmin device, a brand of smartwatch, told him to take a detour. Immediately after, the narrator says “someone was in charge of how he navigates” and alleges that he was receiving instructions from “American and Jewish commanders.” The narrator, Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, was sanctioned by the United States in 2022 for working with Iranian intelligence agencies to produce forced confessions.
Iranian officials accuse Kaufmann of gathering intelligence on sensitive military sites, including missile silos, drone routes, and airbases. Mehr said he was detained by IRGC intelligence operatives in an area marked with warning signs.
Foreign detentions escalate amid Israel-Iran conflict
His arrest comes amid a broader wave of detentions targeting foreign nationals in Iran since the start of Israel’s strikes on Iran on June 13. In recent days, a European national was arrested in northwestern Iran for allegedly attempting to spy on sensitive areas, according to IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News.
In another case, Tasnim reported that two foreign nationals were detained in Karaj, west of Tehran, for allegedly working as Mossad agents. Authorities said the two had shared the locations of state media offices and a government official’s residence with a handler in Germany.
The rising number of detentions has triggered concern across Europe and the United States. A US State Department cable, reported by The Washington Post, cited unconfirmed reports of Americans being detained and noted that many US nationals faced delays and harassment while trying to leave Iran.
The US Virtual Embassy in Tehran has urged American citizens to depart immediately, warning that airspace closures and regional hostilities make conditions increasingly dangerous. While some land borders remain open, Washington has said it cannot ensure safe passage or offer evacuation support.
France has also condemned Iran’s detention of foreign nationals. In May, it announced plans to bring a case against Iran before the International Court of Justice over the prolonged imprisonment of two French citizens. French officials have described the detentions as politically motivated and part of a broader pattern of so-called “hostage diplomacy,” a charge Tehran denies.
Donald Trump’s 14-day deadline on Iran is a strategic pause to allow US forces to fully deploy in the Middle East as he mulls airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, former commander of US forces in the region David Petraeus told Iran International.
Petraeus emphasized that Trump’s move to give Iran a two-week deadline is not mere posturing. It reflects a deliberate and calculated buildup of US military forces in the region.
“The real reason behind the two-week window is to allow the second US aircraft carrier strike group to arrive in the region and for the US military to be fully positioned,” he said.
“This setup would effectively neutralize any attempt by the Iranian regime to close the Strait of Hormuz, through which nearly 20% of the world’s crude oil passes," the former CIA director added.
Senior Revolutionary Guard commander Esmail Kowsari said last Saturday that Iran is considering closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz in response to the Israeli war.
The strait, a key route for global oil shipments, has been at the center of past tensions. Iran has repeatedly threatened to block it, including in 2018 after the US withdrew from the Obama-era nuclear deal with Tehran.
Congressional approval for Iran attack
In his interview with Iran International, Petraeus said the White House is working to engage Congress and may use the 14-day window for winning the lawmakers' support for a possible attack on Iran.
“This period also provides time for congressional consultation — for debate, hearings, and potentially even a vote to authorize a strike. If the president clearly communicates that no ground invasion is planned and defines the mission objectives precisely, I believe Congress would support it," he said.
Petraeus said the Fordow enrichment facility, buried deep within a mountain in central Iran, first came to light during his time as CENTCOM Commander in 2009.
“We had developed and rehearsed a strike plan targeting Iran’s nuclear infrastructure,” he said. “We fired the actual munitions in exercises to ensure the mission could be carried out successfully — and we succeeded.”
Now, as tensions escalate, Fordow remains a critical concern.
“The central question is whether one bomb would be enough to destroy the facility, or if it would take two or three — or more. I firmly believe the United States can accomplish this mission.”
Petraeus added that success would depend on strike precision, geological factors, and penetration depth — but he expressed full confidence in US military capabilities.
A moment of strategic choice for Iran
Petraeus urged Iran’s leadership to recognize the gravity of the moment.
“Refusing to abandon the nuclear program, continuing uranium enrichment, and denying full and permanent access to IAEA inspectors will lead only to ruin — without achieving any meaningful strategic gain.”
He cautioned that continued defiance would bring further Israeli strikes on Iranian infrastructure, worsening the suffering of the Iranian people already burdened by sanctions and economic hardship.
"If Iran shifted from being a revolutionary state to a status-oriented one, focused on rebuilding its economy, investing in human capital, and leveraging its vast natural resources, the country could have an incredibly bright future.”
Petraeus also acknowledged the complexity of regime change scenarios, pointing to past failures in Libya, Iraq, and Yemen. But he suggested that even within the Iranian government, there may be pragmatic voices ready to move away from nuclear ambitions and support for proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthis.
“Perhaps now is the time for Iran to embrace a strategy of national renewal,” Petraeus added. “The opportunity is there — but so is the risk of catastrophic loss if the current path continues.”
“My direct message to Iran’s Supreme Leader is this: the time has come to do what your predecessors did at the end of the Iran-Iraq war — to drink from the ‘poisoned chalice.’ Either you change course now, or face the destruction of your country’s security, energy infrastructure, and nuclear program.”
Iran will lose its ongoing conflict with Israel and its nuclear program, President Trump’s former Iran envoy and prominent neoconservative Elliott Abrams told Eye for Iran, as the conflict between the two countries entered its second week.
"I really think this is going to end by a negotiation,” said Abrams, who served as US Special Representative for Iran from 2020 to 2021.
"They're going to lose this nuclear weapons program, and the question is whether they do it the hard way or the easy way."
Even if the Islamic Republic refuses to surrender, Abrams said more Israeli strikes—followed by a possible US attack targeting an underground nuclear facility—would eventually lead to negotiations, much the way talks settled the Iran–Iraq war.
Eliminating the underground Fordow site in central Iran would likely hinder Tehran’s ability to quickly rebuild its nuclear program but it may not necessarily prevent it from using suspected secret sites to produce nuclear weapons, a prominent nuclear expert said this week.
According to Richard Nephew, a former negotiator during the Obama administration, the United States and Israel must acknowledge that Fordow is not the only pathway for an Iranian nuclear weapons program.
Iran, he argued in a Washington Institute thinktank report, may have other centrifuges available, including at secret sites, and is “probably already at work.”
For his part, Abrams said Fordow is essential to Iran’s program and a necessary military objective, but not a total solution without a broader diplomatic or military campaign.
Abrams was a prominent advocate of preemptive military action against Iraq during George W. Bush’s presidency.
Weapons of mass destruction alleged to be held by Baghdad were never found and the invasion led to a civil war which killed several thousand US troops and tens of thousands of Iraqis.
Trump’s two-week window is ‘strategic’
"Khamenei will soon have that choice: preserve the regime—or risk its collapse under American attack," said Abrams.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that Trump would decide within two weeks whether to authorize a military strike on Iran.
Trump has previously given himself two-week deadlines on other major decisions—particularly related to the Russia–Ukraine war—and then failed to meet them.
Questions about how Trump will handle the conflict between Israel and Iran have swirled over the last week, and the president has yet to give a straight answer.
Based on Abrams' tenure as Trump’s Iran envoy, he sees this two-week window as a psychological negotiating tactic to throw his adversaries off balance.
It also provides the president with time to explore more options, he added, to see where negotiations may head, and to assess what Israel can accomplish on its own inside Iran.
If Israel is unable to destroy Iran’s fortified Fordow nuclear facility, Abrams believes Trump will likely order a US airstrike using bunker-buster bombs, without deploying troops. That window also allows the US to position its military assets and to give Iran a final chance to negotiate.
“He is moving planes and ships, particularly aircraft carriers and carrier task forces from far away into the Gulf area, the Eastern Mediterranean area, and it takes a week or 10 days,” Abrams told Eye for Iran. “So I don't read into this that he's decided not to do anything.”
“It's a way of giving yourself options until the very last minute.”
Trump’s inner circle
During his tenure as special representative on Iran, Abrams viewed influencing trusted inner-circle figures—like Pompeo during Trump’s first term—as the most effective way to shape Trump's decisions.
Trump’s decision-making is shaped by a small group of trusted advisors, not outside pressure or foreign leaders. Those around him—especially top generals and intelligence officials—play a key role in what happens next.
Currently, his trusted circle, according to Abrams, includes Vice President Vance, Secretary of State Rubio, Generals Kane and Kurilla, and CIA Director Ratcliffe—all of whom remain deeply committed to preventing a nuclear Iran.
“I think he's paying a lot of attention to these two top generals—General Kane, who's the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Kurilla, who's the head of CENTCOM, both very experienced four-star generals,” Abrams said.
The generals do not make their opinions known, but from what Abrams gathers, they tend to have a more aggressive stance on Iran and its proxies.
As tensions escalate and the clock on Trump’s two-week window ticks down, all eyes are on Fordow—and on Tehran’s next moves.
Israel’s war against Iran entered its eighth day Friday, with mutual missile attacks continuing, diplomacy intensifying, and the fate of the underground Fordow nuclear site hanging in the air.
President Donald Trump is weighing a US strike, while Israel says it will act alone within days if necessary. Here's a brief summary of events leading to Friday.
Underground site in crosshairs
Israeli strikes continue
Iran vows to retaliate, launches more missiles
Tehran shaken, losses mount
US prepares, denies offensive role
Diplomacy intensifies but stalls
Global fallout escalates
A growing number of Iranians are reporting near-total internet outages across the country as the government appears to have imposed a widespread digital blackout amid the ongoing war.
In messages sent to Iran International, Iranians from across the country described severe connectivity outages affecting both mobile networks and home internet services which left them in the dark about the historic attack on the country.
The shutdown, which some residents say has lasted more than 24 hours, is the most severe connectivity crisis since the November 2019 protests, according to monitoring group NetBlocks.
The disruption has left millions struggling with basic daily tasks, from financial transactions to communicating with loved ones abroad.
“I am a driver for Snapp (a popular ride-hailing app), and with GPS and navigation systems down, I can’t work anymore,” said one message.
“This is how I made a living. Now, in these conditions of war and economic hardship, how am I supposed to support my family?”
Users across the country described scenes of isolation and desperation, with one resident characterizing the situation as “being held hostage.”
“We feel like hostages," the contributor wrote. "The only reason I could even send you this message was through VPNs."
Multiple Iranians confirmed that the internet is entirely down in their areas, preventing the sending of videos or voice messages.
“Even basic messaging barely works," One user from Tehran said. "I managed to connect to the global internet by accident using Psiphon on Windows. Please inform others that this method might still work.”
As international lines remain disrupted, many Iranians living abroad are unable to reach their families.
“I am a student living outside Iran and haven’t been able to contact my family,” another person said.
'Please, Elon'
Others appealed directly to global figures. “Please, we are asking the Iranian people and international media to call on Elon Musk to provide satellite internet to the people of Iran, like he did for Ukraine during the war,” wrote a user in central Tehran.
Home internet services appear to be limited to internal Iranian websites and apps, such as Rubika, and even then operate at extremely low speeds.
In Arak, central Iran, residents reported complete disconnection and uneasiness.
“Even text messages sometimes don’t send. There are still long queues at bakeries and gas stations, even though the city is quiet and most shops are closed.”
Messages also highlighted emotional distress caused by the isolation.
“We are psychologically exhausted. Only Netanyahu finishing this [conflict] can save us,” one person wrote.
Losing touch
Another said, “It’s been over 48 hours since I last heard from my family in Qom. Every call just rings endlessly.”
One message by read, "Since yesterday afternoon, I have not only been unable to contact my loved ones living in Tehran and nearby cities, but I’ve also lost all means of communication with my mother and immediate family, who live in a northern city. I can’t reach them by landline or mobile."
"Today, I tried calling more than a hundred times at different hours. At one point, my call unexpectedly connected to other numbers in Iran — though they couldn’t hear me."
Others warned of the broader economic impact. “All banks are closed. Nationalized internet systems are down. No one can even update their debit cards,” said one message.
Those operating online businesses have reported losses. “I am a trader, and for the past week, my group of nearly 800,000 members has made no income.”
Meanwhile, some Iranians abroad shared partial workarounds. “My mother just managed to call me directly from Iran. Please let families know that direct calling might still work occasionally. It will help relieve some of the anxiety,” a user in Sweden reported.
The nationwide blackout has stoked fears of increased censorship and state control of digital communication.
“The ongoing blackout incident is the most severe tracked since the November 2019 protests and impacts the public's ability to stay connected at a time when communications are vital,” NetBlocks said.
Tasnim news agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, published an article on Thursday calling for a total internet blackout for people. The outlet described the blackout as a necessity “to disrupt enemy cyberattacks and drone operations.”