Iran points replace on Supreme Leader’s well being as Trump says ‘I do not know if he is alive’
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since replacing his father who was reportedly killed in Israeli-US strikes – sparking debate over his condition
Trump suggested Mojtaba Khamenei could be dead(Image: Getty)
Iran’s foreign minister has provided an update on the wellbeing of the new Supreme Leader following Donald Trump’s suggestion that he may be deceased.
Mojtaba Khamenei succeeded his father, who was killed in Israeli-US strikes at the onset of the conflict, but he has not been seen since.
“I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him,” Trump stated. “I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender”. However, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has now asserted: “The Leader of the Revolution is in complete health and is fully managing the situation.”
Mojtaba Khamenei issued his first statement on the war last Thursday, but he did not appear on camera and the speech was delivered by a news anchor. He did not disclose his condition or reveal his location in the speech, reports the Mirror.
This has sparked considerable discussion regarding his health, and an Israeli assessment suggested he was injured in the initial onslaught of the war which claimed the lives of other family members including his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other figures within the Iranian regime.
If he is alive, it’s likely he is in a secure, undisclosed location to evade a threatened Israeli operation to assassinate him.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth declared on Friday that Mojtaba Khamenei was “wounded and likely disfigured”.
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why,” he said.
“His father: dead; he’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy.”
In Mojtaba Khamenei’s statement read by the state television news anchor, he said he would avenge not just the killings of his father and other leaders by the US and Israel, but that of every Iranian who has died in this war.
“I assure everyone that we will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs,” he said.
“The retaliation we have in mind is not limited only to the martyrdom of the great leader of the Revolution; rather, every member of the nation who is martyred by the enemy constitutes a separate case in the file of revenge.”
