The rumors chase each other, bounce around the newspapers. «Ali Khamenei is hiding in an underground shelter in Tehran», write several newspapers, almost all quoting the Iran International website, indicated as very close to the Iranian opposition. Are things really like this? It is not known.
The Iranian consul in Mumbai rejects this idea: he maintains that Khamenei has “security personnel to protect him” but that one should not “think that he is hidden in a bunker or shelter”.
Very high tensions between the United States and Iran
However, tensions between the US and Iran remain very high. And the hypothesis that Ayatollah Khamenei was hiding in an armored bunker had emerged already last June, in another moment of great tension: during the “12-day war” and the raids by Israeli and American forces on Iranian nuclear sites.
Donald Trump’s diplomatic twists and turns
American President Donald Trump continues to flex his muscles. But he does it with his usual diplomatic twists and turns. On the one hand, it seems to ease the threats of an imminent attack against Iran, claiming that the regime would have stopped the executions of “over 830 people” after the protests that broke out in December and which the police are accused of having repressed with the most brutal violence (according to the human rights NGO Hrana, at least 5,002 people died, including 4,716 demonstrators).
But on the other hand he thunders, and states that Washington is “keeping an eye on Iran” and that “a large fleet is heading in that direction.” “We’ll see what happens,” the White House resident declared a few days ago.
The US military buildup in the Middle East
According to two US officials interviewed by the New York Times, in addition to the Lincoln aircraft carrier, the Pentagon ordered last week to send three guided missile destroyers and a dozen F-15 fighters to the Middle East.
Tehran’s harsh response and the alarm in the skies
Tehran’s response is harsh: we will treat any attack “as a total war against us”, declares a senior Iranian official quoted by the Reuters website.
“We hope – he continues – that this military reinforcement is not aimed at a real clash but our army is ready for the worst scenario”.
And it is always Reuters that reports that several airlines have canceled or changed the route of several flights throughout the Middle East.
Diplomatic and military movements in Israel
Meanwhile, the Israeli media claims that the head of the United States Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, has arrived in Israel for a meeting with local military leaders.
And again in Israel – Washington announces – Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his envoy, Steve Witkoff, arrived to take stock of the situation and speak with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu about Iran and the situation in the tormented Gaza Strip.