US President Donald Trump said he believes Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive but “injured”.
Khamenei has not been seen by Iranians since his selection on Sunday (8) by a clerical assembly, and his first comments were read by a television presenter on Thursday (12). The day before, an Iranian official told Reuters that the newly appointed supreme leader suffered minor injuries but continued working, after state television described him as .
“I think he’s probably alive. I think he’s hurt, but I think he’s probably alive in some way, you know?” Trump said in an interview on “The Brian Kilmeade Show” on Thursday night.
In his first comments, Khamenei promised to keep it closed and asked neighboring countries to close American bases in their territories, otherwise they would be targeted by Iran.
The United States and Israel began attacks against Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own attacks against Israel and Gulf countries with American bases.
As the war approached the two-week mark, having killed thousands of people and roiled financial markets, the leaders of Iran, Israel and the United States expressed defiance and vowed to keep fighting.
