A British intelligence report has revealed that Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader, is unconscious and receiving treatment in the southern city of Qom, near Tehran.
Despite being chosen by the Council of Clerics to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since the U.S.-Israeli strike on February 28, in which his father, his mother, his wife Zahra Haddad Adel and one of his sons were killed.
Intelligence memo
On Tuesday, the British newspaper The Times published new details about the health of Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, and reported arrangements concerning the body of his father, Ali Khamenei.
The memo said: “Mojtaba Khamenei is receiving treatment in Qom and is in critical condition, unable to take part in any decision-making within the regime.”
According to the memo, Ali Khamenei’s body is being prepared for burial in Qom, which is considered the center of Shiite religious authority and is known as the country’s religious capital.
The memo says intelligence services detected preparations to “lay the foundations for building a large shrine in Qom” containing “more than one grave,” suggesting that other family members — and perhaps Mojtaba himself — may be buried alongside the late supreme leader.
The son’s location is believed to have been known to U.S. and Israeli intelligence for some time, but had not previously been disclosed.
The newspaper said it had contacted the U.S. National Security Agency, which is responsible for processing global intelligence information for the War Department, and Iran’s mission in Washington, based at the Pakistani embassy, about the memo.
Missing for 40 days
Iran confirmed that the new supreme leader was injured in the same airstrike that killed his father, his mother, his wife Zahra Haddad Adel and one of his sons on the first day of the war, February 28.
Since the outbreak of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei has not appeared in public, despite being chosen to succeed his father in early March, and has only been seen in a message attributed to him and read out by state media.
U.S. President Donald Trump said at the time in an interview on Fox News: “I think he’s probably still alive. I think he’s damaged, but he’s probably still alive in some form.”
Israeli officials also said at the time that Mojtaba Khamenei was inside the compound that was hit on the first day of the war, where his father, mother, wife and daughter were killed, while he was wounded but survived.
Controversial video
Thousands of social media accounts circulated a video earlier this week that drew millions of views and purported to show the first appearance of Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
According to the circulating clip, Khamenei is shown on his way to a military operations room where a number of Iranian commanders are waiting for him, with a map of Israel’s Dimona reactor visible on the wall in the background.
It later emerged that the video was generated using artificial intelligence, as distortions appeared in the faces of the people inside the operations room, along with unnatural movements.
At the same time, Iranian officials insist that the new supreme leader is now running Iran.
Iranian opposition groups said he is being treated in a coma in hospital, while other reports said he is suffering from a broken leg and facial injuries.
The Times concluded that Khamenei’s inability to appear in public could fuel speculation that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is the one holding real power in the country, and that Khamenei is little more than a silent front or symbolic figure.
