Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is hiding in a secret location, and communicates via an elaborate network of messengers, CBS News reported late Sunday, citing American officials familiar with US intelligence.

The precautionary measures, meant to keep Israel from assassinating Khamenei, are causing delays in US-Iran talks to end the war, the report said. It added that even senior Iranian officials don’t know Khamenei’s location and cannot contact him directly.

“This is why you see people saying things like, ‘The supreme leader has agreed to the framework,’ or ‘We’re waiting to hear back on the final deal points.’ Every piece of information he receives is dated and there’s a lot of latency to his responses,” one official told the network.

Still, the supreme leader has managed to communicate, in broad strokes, what the Iranian negotiating team is authorized to discuss. He’s done so by way of a complicated system of couriers designed to keep his location obscured, the report said.

He is not the only senior Iranian official who has gone underground, according to the CBS report. The report said the leaders spend weeks in bunkers and try to avoid communicating with each other.

“Watching them try to figure........

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