After two of its top emergency military commanders were swiftly eliminated within days � Gholam Ali Rashid in the opening strike of the war with Iran, followed by his replacement Ali Shadmani � Tehran thought it had a clever plan: simply keep the name of the next Khatam al-Anbiya chief a secret. If no one knows who he is, no one can target him.

But Israel�s Mossad had other ideas.

Enter Mossad Farsi, a now-notorious X account that has become Israel�s go-to platform for taunting the Iranian regime in Persian. On Tuesday, the account published a post that turned Iran�s attempt at secrecy into a guessing game for all to see.

�The Tasnim news agency announced that the Iranian regime will not publish the name of the new commander of Khatam al-Anbiya in order to protect him. Know that we know his actual name and are well acquainted with him,� Mossad Farsi teased. �Unfortunately, such basic information is being hidden from the Iranian people. Please send us your guesses regarding his name.�

The invitation was met with over 2,300 replies � a mix of defiance, threats against Israel, mockery of the stunt, and, of course, names. Among the contenders offered: Ahmad Vahidi, former Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei�s own son, Mojtaba.

Then, Mossad Farsi returned Wednesday with a follow-up. The account congratulated an Iranian user, Behnam Golipour, who had guessed �Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi� � a former deputy minister and IRGC Air Force commander with a U.S. sanctions badge of honor � as the secret appointee. �The lucky winner who successfully guessed the �secret� name is Mr. Behnam. Please contact us privately to receive your prize,� Mossad Farsi posted.

Behnam, it seems, did not appreciate being dragged into Mossad�s trolling spectacle. Scrambling to distance himself from the unwanted attention, he took to his own account a few hours later to clarify that he accepts �no money or compensation from any individual, institution or organization� and insisted that the freedom of the Iranian people was reward enough.

As for Iran�s supposed plan to safeguard its leadership through anonymity? That appears to be going about as well as its previous two appointments.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)