Iran's supreme leader in hiding slows US‑Iran talks

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is believed to be in hiding at an undisclosed location, relying on a complex network of couriers for communication, according to U.S. intelligence officials. This extreme security posture, adopted after U.S. and Israeli strikes earlier this year, is reported to be causing significant delays in ongoing negotiations between Washington and Tehran.

Khamenei has not been seen or heard from publicly since before the conflict began. Officials say he was injured during a series of joint U.S. and Israeli strikes, known as Operation Epic Fury, which also killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on February 28. Fearing a similar fate, the current supreme leader is described as taking extraordinary precautions to conceal his whereabouts.

The security measures have created a bottleneck within Iran’s government. Even senior Iranian officials reportedly do not know Khamenei’s exact location and have no direct means of contacting him. Instead, messages are passed through a layered system of trusted couriers designed to prevent detection. This process introduces substantial delays, as information can take days to reach him and for his...