Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Arakchi on Sunday denied speculation about the health of Supreme Spiritual Leader Ayatollah Mojtab Khamenei, saying that he is in excellent health and has the situation in the country under control, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported. TASR informs about it according to the report of the DPA agency.
- Iran’s foreign minister says that Mojtaba Khamenei is completely healthy.
- US leaders describe Mojtaba Khamenei as crippled, dead or seriously injured.
- Mojtaba Khamenei took over as supreme leader after his father’s death during the attacks.
Arakchi said this shortly after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing on Friday that Mojtaba Khamenei was “crippled” by injuries he sustained in US-Israeli attacks on Iran. US President Donald Trump recently stated in an interview with NBC News that the Iranian Ayatollah is “apparently dead” or seriously injured.
New Ayatollah elected
Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed as Iran’s new supreme spiritual leader on March 8. The Assembly of Experts elected him more than a week after his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, died on the first day of US-Israeli attacks on Iran on February 28.
Iran’s new Ayatollah issued his first statement on Thursday, but did not personally appear in public or read it himself.
A season of grief and hurt
However, for the former director of the British secret service MI6 John Scarlett, the fact that the ayatollah does not appear in public “is not surprising”, Sky News quotes.
Scarlett says Khamenei “undoubtedly suffered injuries” from the US-Israeli attacks that began more than two weeks ago and was grieving for his family. His father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years, was killed in the attacks in the first hours of the war, along with Mojtab’s mother, wife and daughter.
“From what I’ve heard… I know he was injured, but it wasn’t life-threatening, and that he’ll recover and reappear,” Scarlett stated. “We also have to remember that (in Iran) there is a tradition of a 40-day mourning period,” he recalled.
Inactivity in public
“If he lost his father, mother and wife – at the very least – and was injured himself in that attack, it would not be surprising if he is holding a 40-day mourning period – in a regime where he follows these rules very strictly,” warned the former director of MI6.
The former MI6 chief added that the new ayatollah has a reason, or an excuse, for not appearing in public anyway. “However, this does not mean that he is not active behind the scenes, does not make decisions and does not manage politics,” he added.
