Donald Trump is said to have already vetoed an Israeli opportunity to kill Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since the conflict erupted on Friday.

But Tehran’s 86-year-old supreme leader will still be fearing assassination, hiding out in ‘as secure a location as they can manage’ as Israel continues to target high ranking officials with deadly precision strikes across the country, onlookers believe.

Speaking on the BBC’s Newscast over the weekend, The Economist’s defence editor, Shashank Joshi, assessed that Khamenei would likely avoid any public appearances as his remaining loyalists work desperately to keep him out of Israel’s crosshairs.

‘I think they’ll be concerned that Israel has clearly penetrated them inside out, so they will be looking to all possible corners from how to keep him safe, perhaps moving him from place to place,’ he said.

Where is Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei?

Sources within Iran told London-based Persian-language outlet Iran International that Khamenei was moved to an underground bunker in Lavizan, in northeastern Tehran, in the hours after Israel began its attacks on the capital at the end of last week.

Who is the next Iran’s Supreme Leader?

He is believed to be holed up with his family, including his son, Mojtaba – who has been pegged as a potential successor to the ageing supreme leader.

Israel has already taken out top ranking officials including the chief of staff of the Iranian military and the commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Chiefs (IRGC) since Friday.

A strike killing Khamenei would be deeply controversial and create untold chaos within Iran’s political system. It would also depend on Israeli intelligence being able to locate the supreme leader – and the air force to deliver the crucial blow.

Operation Rising Lion

‘Operation Rising Lion’, believed to have been years in the making, has seen Israel cripple entrenched nuclear facilities. But the Israeli Air Force (IAF) lacks the huge bunker busters to needed to destroy Iran’s most elusive sites deep underground.

Khamenei was last pictured in a televised address from an undisclosed location on Friday, June 13, standing between Iran’s flag and a portrait of former supreme leader Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the country through revolution in 1979.