According to counterterrorism specialists, any final agreement with the U.S. must receive approval from Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who remains hidden due to his status as a “designated target.” This approval process involves clandestine courier networks.
Experts describe this unusual situation as Washington engaging in negotiations with an unseen counterpart, where a significant agreement could be endorsed by a regime figure who must remain in the shadows.
Dr. Omar Mohammed explained to Fox News Digital, “As a designated target, every known location of Khamenei is a potential strike point.”
“The messaging system via couriers is not just a temporary measure; it’s integral to how he governs,” he added.
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In this picture obtained from Iran’s ISNA news agency, Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, walks along a street in Tehran on May 31, 2019. (Hamid FOROUTAN / ISNA / AFP via Getty Images)
“Any deal the United States signs will have to be designed for a permanently invisible counterparty whose enforcement depends on his continued survival. That is not arms control as it has been conventionally understood. It is a memorandum signed under American military pressure, with a regime whose leader cannot show his face.”
Mohammed’s remarks came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained to reporters in India why the deal was suffering delays.
“It’s just the response,” Rubio said. “I mean, when you get down on some of these things, you’ve got to hear back, and it takes the Iranians — takes them a little while longer to get back,” he explained.
“That is Secretary Rubio confirming the courier latency on the record,” said Dr. Omar Mohammed, director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative Program on Extremism at George Washington University. “Rubio is describing a structural feature of negotiating with a supreme leader no one can locate.
President Donald Trump monitors U.S. military operations in Iran following an Israeli strike in Tehran on Feb. 28, 2026. (White House)
“Mojtaba is in hiding, messages are moving by courier, and responses are arriving days late.
“Rubio just confirmed the symptom, and the administration is being honest about the problem. The question is whether the framework can be designed to survive it,” Mohammed claimed.
Khamenei has spent nearly three months in hiding as tensions with the U.S. escalate.
He went underground as soon as a strike on Feb. 28 killed his father, amid reports that he was gravely injured.
He was struck in Operation Epic Fury — “wounded and likely disfigured,” according to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. His wife and son were killed in the same strike.
“Officials at the highest levels of the Iranian government do not know where he is,” Mohammed said, meaning every piece of information he receives is “dated, and his responses come with significant latency.”
The remarks come as Iran and the United States continue talks aimed at reaching a deal to end the war that began Feb. 28.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio faced tough questions Sunday at a New Delhi, India, news conference about the Trump administration’s pressing India on trade, tariffs, visa and immigration reform. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AFP)
“If there’s going to be a deal, we’re going to have to work through that. But this is, you know, it’s either going to be a good deal or there isn’t going to be one,” Rubio said Tuesday.
A senior administration official said the U.S. is prepared to ease sanctions if Iran makes major concessions on uranium enrichment. Frozen Iranian assets have also emerged as a key hurdle.
Iran said Monday that no agreement with the United States was imminent, despite progress toward a framework in talks.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the focus of talks remained ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and that a possible memorandum of understanding did not include specific details on managing the Strait of Hormuz.
“The real question for Washington is not how fast the framework can be signed,” Mohammed added.
“It is also what enforcement looks like when the counterparty’s signature comes through a courier.”