Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the February 28 strike that killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei revealed a security breach at the highest levels of power that probably “still exists.”
“Within seconds, three attacks targeted the command center in the Pasteur region, which holds the offices and headquarters of Iran’s Supreme Leader,” Araghchi said in a wide-ranging television interview with conservative pro-government media activist Javad Moghayi.
A number of senior Iranian political and military figures were killed on the first day of the US-Israel war, including Khamenei.
“The crucial point, in my view, is that (the US and Israel) knew about these meetings,” Araghchi said. “That possibly points to a security breach that existed and probably still exists.”
He said the problem was not limited to infiltration. “Sometimes it also involves influencing the direction of decision-making processes,” Araghchi said, adding: “I don't wish to say any more about that publicly.”
The FM also said he did not meet with new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in person. “Only a handful of people have met him.”
He explained that at the time of the strike, Ali Khamenei was in his office, the Strategic Council for Foreign Relations was holding its weekly meeting, and the Defense Council had also convened.
“They knew that the Supreme Leader (Ali Khamenei) was in the office every morning. As I understand it, the command center meeting was also being held two or three buildings away, and they chose exactly that moment. An Intelligence Ministry meeting was also taking place at that time,” he said.
Araghchi said he told President Masoud Pezeshkian on the morning of February 28 that “the atmosphere is war.” He said that he then met with Khamenei aide Ali Asghar Mir Hejazi shortly after Israel carried out the deadly attack on a Tehran compound where Khamenei was having his high-level meeting.
Araghchi said that during the war, he and his colleagues remained at the Foreign Ministry. “During the 40-day war, my deputies, colleagues, and I did not leave the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building. There was no safe place,” he said.
Araghchi also revealed that he met with Pezeshkian three days after the outbreak of the war, consulted Ali Larijani five days later, and held an official meeting on the sixth day in a safe location.
