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Secret plan to hit Khamenei, mystery after one-week postponement of attack on Iran

2026-03-02 09:13:47Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA REDAKSIA VOX

Secret plan to hit Khamenei, mystery after one-week postponement of attack on

The United States and Israel had originally planned to attack Iran a week earlier than they did, but the initial strike was postponed for operational and intelligence reasons, according to senior American and Israeli officials.

The delay gave President Trump another week to choose between two parallel paths — diplomacy and war — that he had been pursuing for nearly two months, Axios reports. It also made the latest round of nuclear talks in Geneva that much more important, giving Iran a final chance to reach a deal.

After the second round of US-Iran talks ended without significant progress on February 17, US and Israeli military leaders were preparing to launch strikes four days later, on Saturday, February 21. But the green light was never given. US and Israeli officials said a major reason was bad weather in the area.

A second Israeli official said the delay was largely due to the US side and was related to the need for better coordination with the Israel Defense Forces. “The last two weeks have been very contradictory,” said another Trump administration official. “Some say it had to do with the weather. But that is nonsense,” the official stressed.

The initial attack was designed to hit Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, and his sons, as well as several gatherings of senior Iranian officials, including a regular meeting held every Saturday, according to a senior Israeli official. Israel's ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter, claimed that two separate meetings were targeted, which focused on possible responses to the wave of protests sweeping Iran.

In the week between the original and updated dates of the raid, Israeli and American intelligence officials became increasingly concerned that Khamenei would move from his residence to an underground bunker. The U.S. and Israel wanted to “show that no attack was imminent, so that Khamenei and other officials would feel safe,” an Israeli intelligence official said. A senior Trump administration official told Axios that he was surprised that Khamenei was not hiding underground.

The delay also created space for another round of talks, scheduled for Thursday in Geneva. Versions of what the meeting actually entailed vary. An Israeli official said the Geneva talks were intended to buy time until the new date for the attack, giving the Iranians the impression that diplomacy was still Trump's main course.

A second Israeli official said the new date for the attack was set for tactical and operational reasons and that the talks were genuine. If Trump had seen serious progress in Geneva, he might have postponed the attack again. Two US officials also rejected the claim that the Geneva talks were a sham.


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