The New York Times revealed that the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) played a decisive role in determining the location of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei prior to the US-Israeli attack on Tehran, noting that the agency had been following his movements for months, which strengthened its confidence in his patterns of movement and whereabouts.
According to the newspaper, US intelligence learned that a high-level meeting would be held on Saturday morning in a leadership complex in central Tehran, and it turned out that Khamenei would be present at the site. These data prompted Washington and Tel Aviv to adjust the timing of the attack to take advantage of the intelligence opportunity.
The newspaper quoted informed officials that the joint decision to advance the date of the operation came to achieve a “decisive and early strike” targeting senior Iranian officials, especially the Supreme Leader. She pointed out that the success of the operation reflected a high level of coordination and information exchange between the two sides, especially in the wake of the 12-day military confrontation last June.
Sources confirmed to the newspaper that the CIA had provided Israel with information described as “highly accurate” regarding Khamenei’s location, while Israel also relied on its own information to carry out an operation that it had been planning for months, targeting first-line leaders in Iran.
The strike was originally planned to be carried out at night, but the American and Israeli governments decided to change the timing to the morning hours, after receiving information about a meeting that included senior leaders in the government complex in Tehran, which included the presidential headquarters, the Supreme Leader’s headquarters, and the building of the Supreme National Security Council.
According to the New York Times, those attending the meeting included Muhammad Pakpour, Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Guards; Aziz Nassir Zadeh, Minister of Defence; Admiral Ali Shamkhani; Seyyed Majid Mousavi, Commander of the Revolutionary Guards Air Force; And Muhammad Shirazi, Deputy Minister of Intelligence, along with other officials.
The operation began around 6 a.m. Israeli time, with a relatively limited number of combat aircraft taking off, equipped with long-range, high-precision munitions. Two hours and five minutes later, around 9:40 a.m. Tehran time, the missiles hit their targets inside the complex.
The newspaper explained that senior Iranian national security officials were inside one of the complex’s buildings, while Khamenei was in a neighboring building. It quoted an Israeli defense official as saying that the strike was carried out “simultaneously on several sites in Tehran,” and that one of the targets included prominent figures in the Iranian political and security leadership.
The official added that Israel was able to achieve a “tactical surprise,” despite Iran’s prior preparations for war, considering that timing and intelligence accuracy were the decisive factor in the success of the operation.
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