Janatan Sayeh, a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’s Iran Program, told the Washington Examiner that rumors of Khamenei planning to smuggle himself out of the country have circulated with each protest since at least 2009, when Sayeh was in the capital.

“When I was actually in Tehran — I was protesting — there were rumors that he had sent two trucks to Turkey as a Plan B. At the time, Iran and Ankara had better relations, so it kind of made sense. Then the rumors resurfaced again that Venezuela was the second option for regime officials to flee,” Sayeh said. “That’s no longer an option. So if they had to flee somewhere, it would be Moscow because I doubt China would take them in, and I doubt they would want to go.”

A report from British outlet the Times asserted just that this week, alleging Khamenei was prepared to flee Tehran to Moscow in the event of a total collapse of his regime.

Citing an “intelligence source” with knowledge of the matter, the report said the supreme leader has “plotted an exit route out of Tehran” with approximately 20 allies, including plans for “gathering assets, properties abroad and cash to facilitate their safe passage.”

Such an arrangement would hardly be without precedent — deposed Syrian dictator Bashar Assad made a similar flight to Moscow following the collapse of his government in late 2024. He has since lain low in the custody of the Kremlin, reportedly retreating into optometry and playing video games.

However, Sayeh said he is not convinced that Khamenei is willing to slip silently into the night, abandoning a political project he spent decades building.

The 86-year-old supreme leader has not left his country in decades due to countless security concerns and fears of arrest by international powers. Leaving Iran is an unthinkable option, save the most catastrophic situation.

“He would, of course, prioritize his own life — but for him to actually flee the country, the situation needs to be really, really dire,” Sayeh said. “I can absolutely see the scenario where he doesn’t have the opportunity to escape.”

“And that is assuming regime change is going to happen in a way that we’re not going to see leadership decapitation first,” he continued, asserting that a “possible scenario for regime change might be similar to what we saw in the 12-day war.”

Sayeh postulated that it is possible America will decide to “decapitate the leadership and again let the protests to really take place from bottom up. That is a more likely scenario than people really effectively barging down his door and trying to capture him.”

French-Iranian journalist Emmanuel Razavi said on Thursday that “since precisely 24 hours ago, several personalities from the reformist clan have requested visas — or at least are attempting, via a Parisian lawyer, to obtain French visas for their families.”

In a separate interview with Nouvelle Revue Politique on Wednesday, Razavi said one of these visa-seekers is Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.

IRAN REPORTEDLY CUTS INTERNET AS ANTI-GOVERNMENT PROTESTS SWELL: WHAT TO KNOW

Khamenei was glued to social media on Friday, writing a flurry of posts variously denouncing President Donald Trump and asserting that protesters are acting on his orders.

Just hours later, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council announced that those participating in the civil unrest will receive “no leniency” from authorities.