Iran's Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader of Israeli plot to kill him, say sources

DUBAI/BEIRUT - Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before the latter was killed in an Israeli strike, and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah using booby-trapped pagers on Sept 17, Ayatollah Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech the Hezbollah secretary-general to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters.

The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander, Brigadier-General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.

Ayatollah Khamenei, who has remained in a secure location in Iran since Sept 28, personally ordered the barrage of around 200 missiles that was fired at Israel on Oct 1, a senior Iranian official said. The attack was in retaliation for the deaths of Nasrallah and Brig-Gen Nilforoushan, the IRGC said in a statement.

The statement also cited the July killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, and Israel's attacks on Lebanon. Israel has not claimed responsibility for Haniyeh's death.

Nasrallah's assassination followed two weeks of precise Israeli strikes that destroyed weapons sites, eliminated half of Hezbollah's leadership council and decimated its top military command.

Iran's fears for the safety of Ayatollah Khamenei and the loss of trust, within both Hezbollah and Iran's establishment and between them, emerged in the conversations with 10 sources for this story, who described a situation that could complicate the effective functioning of Iran's Axis of Resistance alliance of anti-Israel irregular armed groups.

Founded with Iran's backing in the 1980s, Hezbollah has long been the most formidable member of the alliance.

The disarray is also making it hard for Hezbollah to choose a new leader, fearing that the ongoing infiltration will put the successor at risk, four Lebanese sources said.