A report in the London-based Financial Times has outlined what it describes as a prolonged covert operation by Israeli intelligence that ultimately resulted in the killing of Iran’s former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and several senior military officials.
According to the newspaper, which cited multiple sources familiar with the matter, the operation was not sudden. It allegedly unfolded over several years, involving cyber intrusions into Tehran’s traffic surveillance system and access to mobile communication networks. The aim, the report said, was to closely track Khamenei’s movements and those of his security entourage, a move that later enabled a precise strike.
The Financial Times claimed that a large number of traffic cameras across Tehran had been compromised, with footage encrypted and transmitted to remote servers. This intelligence, the report suggested, helped Israeli and American forces identify Khamenei’s exact location before carrying out the attack.
US and Israeli leaders defend action
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the strikes in an interview with Fox News, accusing Iran’s leadership of hostility towards the United States.
“Iran for 47 years has been chanting death to America. They bombed your embassies. They tried to assassinate Donald Trump, the President of the United States, twice. They murdered their own people, they massacred so many. And they spread a worldwide web of terror. This is a regime committed to destroying the United States of America,” Netanyahu said
US Vice President JD Vance also told Fox News that President Donald Trump’s objective went beyond short-term security concerns.
“What the president determined is he didn’t want to just keep the country safe from an Iranian nuclear weapon for the first three, four years of his second term. He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon, and that would require fundamentally a change in mindset from the Iranian regime. So he saw that the Iranian regime was weakened, he knew that they were committed to getting on that brink of a nuclear weapon, and he decided to take action because he felt that was necessary in order to protect the nation’s security,” said Vance.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that the present retaliation from Iran showed what could have happened had the operation not taken place.
“This operation needed to happen because Iran, in about a year… they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it… look at the damage they’re doing now, and this is a weakened Iran. Imagine a year from now. The bottom line is no matter who governs that country a year from now, they’re not going to have these ballistic missiles and they’re not going to have these drones to threaten us. That’s the objective of this mission,” Rubio said while addressing a press conference.
Iran rejects US justification
Iran’s Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi responded sharply, rejecting Washington’s claims of an imminent threat.
“Mr. Rubio admitted what we all knew: U.S. has entered a war of choice on behalf of Israel. There was never any so-called Iranian “threat”. Shedding of both American and Iranian blood is thus on Israel Firsters. American people deserve better and should take back their country,” he wrote on X.
The wider conflict in West Asia remains active, with Iran targeting Gulf states and American-linked assets in the region. The United States has said further military action could follow, even as tensions show little sign of easing.