He was just to complete briefing the Supreme Leader on failure of Geneva talks when the building shook. Today, 96 days on, Iran's foreign minister is describing what he witnessed and what the world has yet to fully understand.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is no stranger to tough times in Iran. However, nothing had given him an inkling of the morning of February 28, 2026: not the years of back-channel nuclear negotiations, not the proxy tensions that kept the area on a slow boil.

He had come back from Geneva the previous night, and there the discussions had resulted in nothing but greater uneasiness. He walked into the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in the central Tehran compound of Beit Rahbari, with his report at 9 a.m. on Saturday, a report that he later said made the prospect of war seem "much greater. He never had a chance to complete it.

The building in which they sat was the object of attack. The wing they were in was still intact, but debris rained down around them as a result of the force of the crash. Having come out of the debris, Araghchi's mind was not on his own survival. “When I came out from under the rubble, I was wondering whether he was targeted or not,” he told this week's Al Mayadeen network, which is affiliated with Hezbollah.

He had been. Khamenei was killed while in his office, a statement from state media said, adding that Iran's state news agency IRIB said he was "martyring himself in his workplace while performing his duties. Araghchi, who spent the next two days "uncertain" about Khamenei's condition, due to the destruction, said that the official news came after that.

The account is important, not only as personal testimony. It's the most detailed insider coverage of the opening hours of one of the most significant military actions of the 21st century yet made public and it begs questions about intelligence, timing, diplomatic proximity and the strange time the world lives in.

The strike, the plan, and the timing

CIA intelligence reports of a senior officials' meeting accelerated plans to strike Iran, originally conceived to be done at night, as was the approach in the 12-day war when Operation Midnight Hammer was launched. The attacks on the Khamenei's compound happened about 9.40 am Tehran time (0610 GMT).

It is said that five people died in the strike, including Khamenei himself. Planned by Israel's Mossad and the US Central Intelligence Agency and conducted by the Israeli Air Force (IAF) with the assistance of the US Air Force (USAir) and Navy (USN).

Araghchi's appearance at that meeting, his survival, and the fact that he remains foreign minister, are all aspects that have not been fully explained by Teheran's diplomatic corps. His mission was to bring a warning of war. The war broke out before he could complete his studies.

Several of Iran's top officials were among those killed in the strikes. Ali Shamkhani has been confirmed dead, a top security aide to Khamenei for more than a decade. Also killed was Mohammad Pakpour, chief of the IRGC's. Among the deceased was Khamenei's daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law.

The Words of Araghchi and what they signal

Araghchi was concise, stoic and to the point in his Al Mayadeen interview which aired this week, some 100 days after the strike. He commended the late chieftain for not taking cover. A quotation allegedly attributed to Khamenei that had been spread around the compound said: "I will not go to a shelter or to a secure location, unless every member of the Iranian people also has a shelter or secure location. It may be a principle or it may be a fatal miscalculation, depending upon who's doing the judging.

Throughout the interview, Araghchi displayed his confidence and refuted the idea of Iran's weakness as a result of the leadership change. He said the "resilience of the Iranian people" had shown those who doubted it wrong, and "the search for accountability for the alleged war crimes will continue.

When asked about the regional states and US bases, Araghchi was blunt and stated that he had cautioned Persian Gulf governments during his visits prior to the war that their military bases would not be spared in case of their use in an attack on Iran. He criticized the “American security umbrella” saying that these US bases would not have been targeted by Iran if they were not located in the neighboring countries.

Diplomatically, Araghchi said there were no written or unwritten sanctions against the indirect contacts between Iran and Washington and that the two sides were studying texts that they had previously exchanged. Tehran did not want to resume the hostilities but could fight for a long time, he said.

The New Supreme Leader and the Invisible Hand

The issue of succession was discussed, Araghchi said that now full charge is in the hands of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late leader. He stated that Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei has a strong and influential presence in the country's affairs and the instructions of the new leader are being conveyed and followed.

The issue is that no one outside Tehran has actually seen him. Mojtaba Khamenei was said to be injured in the same attacks which killed his father. He was appointed the successor days later, but has yet to come out in public, raising speculation about the severity of his injuries.

Since the April 8 truce, there are indications Mojtaba Khamenei is alive and more involved in the country's affairs, said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week. “All his communications have been in writing and through intermediaries,” Rubio said, adding “probably staying out of the public eye isn't something that's recommended for them internally” given that several Iranian leaders have been killed in the conflict.

If a deal is made to end the war, which has been ongoing for four months, President Trump himself said on Thursday he would be "honored" to meet with the new Supreme Leader. If we make a deal, it's possible that I would meet," Trump said. "I'd be okay with that."

That Trump is openly considering a meeting with an Iranian Supreme Leader the first time since the 1979 revolution is a testament to the extent of the regional architecture's transformation.

The Economic Wreckage

Behind the official rhetoric of resilience, the figures of Iran's economy paint a bleaker picture of what is happening in Tehran. Many experts believe Iran's economy will collapse by 2026, while the IMF predicts it will contract 6.1% and the rate of inflation will be 68.9% annually. The rial has plunged to about 1.32 million per USD.

Iran was already facing intense pressure from sanctions before the war. By 2025, inflation had gone over 50% and the rial had already depreciated 60% in the months since the 12-day war of July the previous year.

The war has left a lot more damage than sanctions ever did. Iran's primary economic arteries are choked by a US naval blockade and Tehran is facing a looming oil storage crisis as its citizens are forced to deal with skyrocketing food prices and soaring unemployment. Crude oil and petroleum products which make up a large part of Iran's export earnings – have seriously dropped since the onset of the blockade. The Iranian steel and petrochemicals plants have also been subject to numerous disruptions.

Iranians have been facing a series of rising prices for food, pharmaceuticals and other commodities, and also thousands of job losses and business shutdowns as a result of the strike damage to the important industries and the government's internet shutdown for several months.

This year, analysts are expecting GDP to fall by at least 10%. Fresh rounds of protests have reportedly been feared by Iranian officials and the country is facing disaster if sanctions are not removed.

The irony is sharp. Iran's strategic wager to choke the world's energy system by closing the Strait of Hormuz – has backfired. Iran's neighbours are already seeking ways around the strait following its attacks on their infrastructure. In the interim, its other trading partners in particular Russia and China have not been inclined to come to its aid. One economist said Tehran will be coming out of this conflict with a weaker currency, much higher inflation, a bigger fiscal gap and less leverage than it ever thought it had.

The struggle for Survival: What Araghchi means

There's a side to this story that's greater than testimony. Araghchi was there when Iran was at its weakest. He survived. He is now, along with that of the speaker of the parliament Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, one of the most visible faces of the Islamic Republic's diplomatic and political survival operation.

His survival is itself a diplomatic act, as is his cool, coolheaded account of what happened. The point being made is that despite the unprovoked attack on the highest post in the Iranian government, the institutional continuity was maintained. Foreign minister that was in the rubble remains foreign minister. The building fell, but the state did not, the account suggests.

Oman is the sole Arab Gulf nation to directly condemn the US and Israeli strikes and to have welcomed the election of Moqtada Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, and thus could become a potential link between the two sides. The coexistence with Iran is a permanent geographic reality in Qatar," it has pointed out.

The agreement, which comes at a critical moment, is significant in Tehran's willingness to discuss parts of its nuclear programme it had refused to talk about a year ago, even though Rubio noted there is “no guarantee” it will result in a deal that Washington finds acceptable.”

The Strait of Hormuz is the main choke choke. The blockade, the ceasefire, the ghostly new Supreme Leader sending messages via third parties, a foreign minister who walked out of the ruins and resumed his seat at his desk these are the hallmarks of a war which, for all its precision at the beginning, has no clean finish in view.

The one man who survived the strike has more to say. But the world is just starting to hear.