New Delhi, May 25 -- Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen or heard in public since before the start of the war with the United States and Israel. According to CBS report quoting US officials with direct knowledge of intelligence assessments, Khamenei is effectively isolated inside an undisclosed location, surrounded by extreme security measures designed to prevent the kind of targeted strike that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who led Iran from 1989 until his death on 28 February.

The disappearance of Iran's Supreme Leader is now having a direct and measurable impact on nuclear negotiations between Washington and Tehran. When the US sends proposed deal terms, the difficulty in reaching the supreme leader m...