The Ayatollah is believed to be holed up, incommunicado, for the fear of being assassinated by Israel. Even top government officials apparently have had no contact with him.
A vast number of Iranians will singularly hold Ayatollah Khamenei, who first became leader in 1989, responsible for setting Iran on a collision course with Israel and the US that ultimately brought considerable ruin to his country and people.
They will blame him for pursuing the ideological aim of destruction of Israel – something many Iranians don't support. They will blame him for what they perceive as a folly – his belief that achieving nuclear status would render his regime invincible. Sanctions have crippled the Iranian economy, reducing a top oil exporter to a poor and struggling shadow of its former self.
"It is difficult to estimate how much longer the Iranian regime can survive under such significant strain, but this looks like the beginning of the end," says Professor Lina Khatib, a visiting scholar at ...
However, moving forward, she doesn't want foreign countries involved.
"All we are asking is for moral support," Zamani continued. "We don't want a foreign country to put someone in place in a regime change."
In an interview with Kan public television, Katz stated, "I estimate that if Khamenei had been in our sights, we would have taken him out." He added that Khamenei likely recognised the threat and went deep underground, severing contact with the new commanders who had replaced those killed by Israel.
Rats run underground and in the sewers