Tehran — Iran has been plunged into a four‑day power vacuum after an Israeli strike obliterated a fortified hall where the country’s top clerics and generals were reportedly mid‑vote on a new Supreme Leader, leaving much of the Supreme Council presumed dead and the regime’s future hanging by a thread.

The missile strike hit a secure compound in northern Tehran just as members of the Assembly of Experts and senior IRGC brass gathered to finalize a secret ballot. Satellite imagery shows the main chamber reduced to a crater and surrounding buildings blackened; rescue teams admit privately that “most of those who entered that room have not walked out.” For four days, state TV has cycled between Qur’an recitations, generic footage of crowds and carefully edited statements, but has released no full list of survivors.

Israel has not officially claimed responsibility, but senior officials call it “a decisive blow against the war brain of the Islamic Republic,” hinting that precise intelligence guided the strike. In Tehran, hardliners accuse Washington and Tel Aviv of attempting “regime beheading,” while rival factions quietly maneuver to control what remains of the security apparatus.

On the streets, confusion and fear are mounting. Rumors swirl that multiple successors were killed together, that emergency councils are deadlocked, and that IRGC field commanders are acting on their own. Analysts warn that by hitting the Supreme Council in session, Israel may have wiped out not just Iran’s present leadership, but the very mechanism designed to choose its future — turning the next days into the most dangerous in the republic’s history.