Iran's supreme leader is holed up in undisclosed location, U.S. intel says

Politics Iran's supreme leader is holed up in undisclosed location, U.S. intelligence says By Jennifer Jacobs Jennifer Jacobs Senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs is a senior White House reporter at CBS News. Read Full Bio Jennifer Jacobs May 24, 2026 / 5:32 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google U.S. intelligence shows that Iran's supreme leader is effectively holed up in an undisclosed location with little access to the outside world and is only reached by a labyrinth of couriers, according to U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter. The Iranian officials authorized to work with the Trump administration have been having a difficult time communicating inside of their own government system — and it's a central reason why the details of a potential deal with Iran and past agreements have been slow to emerge, When the U.S. sends proposed details, the difficulty in reaching the supreme leader means there can be a long delay before the U.S. receives a response, two of the officials said. A White House spokesperson declined to comment on intelligence on the supreme leader's whereabouts or Iranian communication methods.A senior administration official said Sunday the supreme leader had agreed to the contours of the current draft agreement, and President Trump posted on Truth Social that he anticipated final word in the next few days.Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was injured in U.S. and Israeli strikes in Operation Epic Fury, is taking extreme measures to avoid the strikes similar to the ones that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran from 1989 until Feb. 28. Mojtaba Khamenei has not been officially seen or heard in public since before the start of the war.U.S. and Israeli intelligence obtained from inside the Iranian government has made it possible to locate and eliminate much of the Iranian senior leadership during the war, one of the officials said. At this point, most Iranian leaders don't see daylight...