A long-term intelligence operation by Israeli spy agencies, which involved hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and mobile phone networks, facilitated the targeted killing of Iran’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and senior military officials.
According to a report in the Financial Times citing multiple sources, nearly every traffic camera in the Iranian capital had been compromised for years.
Footage was encrypted and transmitted to servers, allowing Israeli and American forces to monitor the movements of Khamenei and his security detail to pinpoint his exact location for the strike.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has justified the military action, describing the Iranian administration as an “Islamist regime” dedicated to the destruction of the United States. He cited 47 years of “death to America” slogans, embassy bombings, and two attempted assassinations of US President Donald Trump as evidence of the regime’s global terror network.
US Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that President Trump’s objective was to ensure Iran could “never have a nuclear weapon”.
Vance stated that the President took action after determining that while the Iranian regime was weakened, it remained committed to reaching the “brink” of nuclear capability.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio further noted that the mission was a preemptive necessity. He argued that within a year, Iran would have amassed a prohibitive number of drones and short-range missiles.
“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,” Rubio said during a news conference.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Syed Abbas Araghchi dismissed these justifications, asserting that the US had entered a “war of choice” on behalf of Israel.
In a post on X, Araghchi claimed there was never a legitimate “Iranian threat” and held “Israel Firsters” responsible for the shedding of both American and Iranian blood.
The conflict in West Asia remains unabated, with Iranian leadership targeting American assets and Gulf States in the region. Meanwhile, the United States has warned that the “hardest hits” from its armed forces are still to come.
