Trump says he believes Iran’s leader is still alive
Trump said he doubts reports of Mojtaba Khamenei’s death, while analysts say Iran’s security services are using his absence to preserve control.
- On Wednesday, President Donald Trump told radio host Glenn Beck he believes Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei survived severe wounds in a February airstrike, dismissing death rumors as a "pretty good show."
- After U.S.-Israeli airstrikes killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in February, Mojtaba was selected as the new supreme leader in March by Iran's Assembly of Experts, a group of 88 clerics, yet has remained out of public view since.
- Khosro Isfahani, research director at the National Union for Democracy in Iran, describes Mojtaba as "an impotent young cleric," noting the IRGC uses statements attributed to him to justify policies while he remains absent from public life.
- Tehran remains "abuzz" with death speculation, yet Trump argues Iranian negotiators' persistent requests for Mojtaba's approval indicate the regime is maintaining a façade of stability despite his prolonged absence.
- Analyst Peiman Salehi explains that Shia Islam's precedent of the Twelfth Imam, absent for more than 1,200 years, allows Tehran to govern through a symbolic figurehead regardless of Mojtaba's physical presence or condition.
51 Articles
51 Articles
Trump says Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but ‘very seriously wounded’
Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed Iran’s supreme leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28. The younger Khamenei was reportedly wounded in the same attacks and has not appeared publicly since becoming supreme leader.
US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he believes Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking power after the killing of his father Ali Khamenei in February, is still alive.
Trump doubts Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is dead: ‘If he is, they’re putting on a pretty good show’
Trump was responding to an article in The Atlantic, which cited an Iranian official saying, "I believe Mojtaba has either passed away or is brain-dead."
US President Donald Trump said Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since taking power after his father's assassination in February, is still alive, writes France 24. "I don't think he's died. He...
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