Iran’s new supreme leader injured but ‘safe and sound’, says president’s son
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Mr Mojtaba Khamenei has yet to address the nation since he was named Iran’s new Supreme Leader.
PHOTO: AFP
- Despite reports of injury during the war with Israel and the US, Mr Mojtaba Khamenei is “safe and sound”, according to Iranian president’s son, Mr Yousef Pezeshkian.
- Named supreme leader after his father's death, Mr Mojtaba Khamenei's whereabouts are questioned, with speculation about the injuries from the attack that killed his family.
- Analysts expect Mr Mojtaba Khamenei to delegate power and remain out of public view due to assassination threats, while the army and allies pledge allegiance.
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TEHRAN – Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “safe and sound” despite reports of an injury during the war with Israel and the United States, according to the son of the Iranian president.
“I heard news that Mr Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound,” Mr Yousef Pezeshkian, who is also a government adviser, said in a post on his Telegram channel on March 11.
Mr Mojtaba Khamenei, until now a low profile, if powerful, behind-the-scenes figure, was named Iran’s No. 1 following the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an air strike at the start of the US-Israeli war against Iran.
But there have been mounting questions about his whereabouts and physical condition after his appointment by the Assembly of Experts clerical body, with the new supreme leader yet to be seen, let alone speak, in public.
State television has called Mr Khamenei a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war” but never specified his injury.
Israel’s intelligence assessment is that Mr Khamenei was lightly wounded, and that was why he had not been seen in public, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.
In a report on March 11, The New York Times, quoting three unnamed Iranian officials, said Mr Khamenei “had suffered injuries, including to his legs, but that he was alert and sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication”.
There has been speculation that he was injured in the day-time air strike on a compound in Tehran that killed his father, as well as his mother and wife, on the first day of the war on Feb 28.
His face has appeared on giant billboards in Tehran, with one showing him symbolically receiving the national flag from his father while the founding leader of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, looks on.
Posters of him were brandished by thousands of pro-government supporters at a huge rally in central Tehran on March 9.
But night-time cries of “Death to Mojtaba!” in the capital have also underlined public opposition to a figure believed to have played a key role in repressing waves of anti-government protests since 2009.
Mr Mojtaba Khamenei’s father, Ali, lived the latter half of his life with a partially paralysed arm, having been injured in an assassination attempt in 1981 blamed on the People’s Mujahedin of Iran group.
The Iranian supreme leader position is for life, and he also serves as a religious guide for Shi’ite Muslims.
A woman holds an image of Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, alongside his father’s, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Sit in a bunker
Given that he instantly became a target for assassination by the United States and Israel at the weekend, analysts said he would remain out of public view for some time.
Mr Emile Hokayem, at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies, said he expected him “to sit in a bunker somewhere for a very long time because he saw what happened to his father, his wife and his mother, who were all killed in the initial attack”.
“Killing him early is certainly an Israeli priority. If he survives, he becomes a totem, a testimony to the resilience of the system,” Mr Hokayem told an online event organised by his think-tank on March 9.
He said he expected Mr Khamenei to delegate power to run the government to national security chief Ali Larijani and the war effort to powerful Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf.
The army and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps both pledged allegiance to Mr Khamenei after his nomination, as did the Tehran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and the Hezbollah armed group in Lebanon.
Russian President Vladimir Putin promised “unwavering support”.
Before his nomination to the position, US President Donald Trump warned that Mr Khamenei would be “unacceptable” as new supreme leader.
“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” he told ABC News on March 8. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long.”
Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has said any leader appointed by the current Iranian leadership would “be an unequivocal target for elimination”. AFP, REUTERS
