Iran has claimed that its new Supreme Leader has fully healed after sustaining injuries during a joint US-Israeli attack on the first day of the war earlier this year.
The Middle Eastern nation previously said Mojtaba Khamenei was suffering from a ‘small scratch behind the ear’ despite reports claiming he had undergone facial surgery.
In the regime’s first public comments on his injuries, a senior Iranian official said the supreme leader is in ‘full health’, according to local media.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since sustaining injuries during a joint US-Israeli attack on the office compound of Iran’s leadership on February 28.
According to Iran’s Fars News Agency, Mazaher Hosseini, director general of protocol at the office of the supreme leader, said he was present at the compound during the attack.
He said Khamenei was knocked to the ground by the blast wave while heading toward the residence and suffered injuries to his kneecap and lower back.
‘The back injury has improved during this period, and the kneecap injury will soon heal as well. He is in full health,’ Hosseini said, according to Fars.
He also dismissed speculation over injuries to Khamenei’s forehead, saying there was only a ‘small crack behind the ear’ and that it was already treated.
The Middle Eastern nation previously said Mojtaba Khamenei was suffering from a ‘small scratch behind the ear’ despite reports claiming he had undergone facial surgery
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound in Tehran after it was hit in Operation Epic Fury
The official said that several nearby locations were also hit, including sites where senior Iranian officials, including Ali Khamenei, the then-supreme leader and Mojtaba Khamenei’s father, were killed.
Hosseini added that Mojtaba Khamenei was not inside the area where he usually delivered lectures at the time of the strikes, saying the site was later ‘flattened’ in the bombardment.
The senior official also confirmed that Khamenei’s residence was targeted, and that his wife and several others were killed in the attack.
It comes as Iran sent its response to a US proposal to begin peace talks to end the war, the IRNA news agency reported on Sunday, as two carriers were allowed to pass through the blockaded Strait of Hormuz.
The IRNA report said the response to a US proposal to end fighting before starting talks on more contentious issues, including Iran’s nuclear program, had been sent to Pakistan, which is mediating. But no details were immediately available.
After some 48 hours of relative calm following sporadic clashes last week, hostile drones were detected over several Gulf countries on Sunday, underlining the threat still facing the region despite a month-old ceasefire.
Still, the QatarEnergy-operated carrier Al Kharaitiyat passed safely through the strait and was heading for Pakistan’s Port Qasim, according to data from shipping analytics firm Kpler, the first Qatari vessel carrying liquefied natural gas to cross the strait since the US and Israel started the war on February 28.
Sources said earlier that the transfer, which offered a modicum of relief to Pakistan after a wave of power blackouts caused by a halt to vital gas imports, had been approved by Iran to build confidence with Qatar and Pakistan, both mediators in the war.
In addition, a Panama-flagged bulk carrier bound for Brazil that had previously attempted to transit the strait on May 4 passed through, using a route designated by Iran’s armed forces, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Sunday.
President Donald Trump is also due to visit China this week. There has been mounting pressure to draw a line under the war, which has ignited a global energy crisis and poses a growing threat to the world economy.
But, despite diplomatic efforts to break a deadlock between the two sides and the passage of the Qatari gas tanker, the threat to shipping lanes and the economies of the region remained high.
On Sunday, the United Arab Emirates said it intercepted two drones coming from Iran, while Qatar condemned a drone attack that hit a cargo ship coming from Abu Dhabi in its waters.
Kuwait said its air defences had dealt with hostile drones that entered its airspace.
Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which before the war carried one-fifth of the world’s oil supply and which has emerged as one of the central pressure points in the war.
President Donald Trump is due to visit China this week
Tehran has largely blocked non-Iranian shipping through the narrow Strait of Hormuz
Qatari Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, who discussed Pakistan’s mediation efforts to end the war with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Miami on Saturday, told Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi that using the Strait of Hormuz as a ‘pressure tool’ would only deepen the crisis.
He told Araqchi in a phone call that freedom of navigation should not be compromised, the Qatari foreign ministry said on Sunday, without specifying the exact date of the call.
Turkey’s foreign minister also spoke to Araqchi, an official in the Turkish foreign ministry said.
Iranian lawmakers have said they are drafting a bill to formalise Iran’s management of the strait, with clauses including forbidden passage to vessels of ‘hostile states’.
Recent days have seen the biggest flare-ups in fighting in and around the strait since a ceasefire began a month ago: the UAE came under renewed attack on Friday, and sporadic clashes were reported between Iranian forces and US vessels in the strait.
Washington imposed a blockade on Iranian vessels last month, but Tehran has so far taken its time before responding to calls to end a war that surveys show is unpopular with US voters facing ever-higher gasoline prices.
A CIA assessment indicated Iran would not suffer severe economic pressure from a US blockade for about another four months, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
A senior intelligence official characterised as false the ‘claims’ about the CIA analysis, which was first reported by the Washington Post.
The US has also found little international support in the conflict, with NATO allies refusing calls to send ships to open the Strait of Hormuz without a full peace deal and an internationally mandated mission.
After meeting Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday, Rubio questioned why Italy and other allies were not backing Washington’s efforts to reopen the strait, warning of a dangerous precedent if Tehran were allowed to control an international waterway.
Britain, which has been working with France on a proposal to ensure safe transit through the strait once the situation stabilises, said on Saturday it was deploying a warship to the Middle East in preparation for such a multinational mission.