Iran’s newly-appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, did not appear at his own rally in Tehran on Monday, leaving his followers to pledge allegiance to a cardboard cutout.
His lack of public appearances fueled rumors that he has already been severely injured by U.S. and Israeli bombing, and may even be incapacitated.
Khamenei has not been seen in public since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury on February 28. This is not a complete surprise, as the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has always kept a low profile. and he has good reason to fear he would become a target if he reveals his location. Yet the lack of even pre-recorded statements from carefully hidden locations seems unusual at a time when the Iranian theocracy is desperate to prove it can withstand the relentless bombing campaign.
“It’s either he’s out cold in a hospital, or he’s scared and hiding in the deepest bunker they have after seeing his dad be turned into red mist,” Iranian opposition researcher Khosro Isfahani of the National Union for Democracy told the New York Post (NYP) on Wednesday.
Isfahani added that Mojtaba Khamenei “has the charisma of a boiled potato” and said his primary purpose was to act as a disposable figurehead for the real power brokers in Iran, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Ghalibaf.
“Those two want to sit this out and are happy to see Mojtaba be the one to beat his chest and take the reins,” he said.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has no executive experience or previous government postings. He spent most of his public life cloistered in Islamic seminaries, although he was said to be influential with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) behind the scenes.
Human rights groups have accused Mojtaba of playing a role in the sham 2005 and 2009 elections that installed hardline maniac Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president, inspiring the “Green Movement” backlash. Mojtaba was also accused of orchestrating the brutal crackdown that suppressed the Green Movement.
The younger Khamenei has played a role in his father’s corrupt business empire, which controls about 60 percent of Iran’s entire economy, even as the Khameneis pretend to be humble clerics who live austere lifestyles.
Reuters on Tuesday quoted sources in Iran who said Mojtaba was hastily pushed through as the new supreme leader by the IRGC, who saw him as “a more pliant version of his father who would back their hardline policies, bludgeoning aside the concerns of pragmatists.”
According to this account, the IRGC bulldozed a few senior clerics and politicians who worried that Mojtaba was unqualified, and his appointment could be seen by many Iranians as nepotism or an act of dynastic succession – an act of ideological hypocrisy for a regime that began as a revolution against a monarchy.
Reuters’ sources added that Mojtaba’s silence since the beginning of Operation Epic Fury was also disturbing, as some feared he could be used as a mute puppet by the IRGC, and might already be injured or dead.
Channel News Asia (CNA) pointed to an Iranian state television broadcast in which a member of the Assembly of Experts – the body that selects the new Supreme Leader – admitted that Mojtaba’s selection was highly irregular and, while he supposedly won 85 percent of the vote, some members of the Assembly were not present. The Assembly supposedly marshaled enough of its members to reach a quorum, but some of the members said they were threatened into supporting Mojtaba by the IRGC.
A frequently cited bit of evidence for Mojtaba’s ill health is an Iranian state television broadcast from this week that referred to him as a “janbaz jang,” a term normally reserved for military officers who have been wounded in action.
The leftist newspaper New York Times (NYT) on Wednesday quoted three unnamed Iranian officials who said Mojtaba was “injured on the opening day of the attack by Israel and the United States.” These sources relayed statements from their superiors that he was injured in his legs, but remains “alert” and is “sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication.”
Two Israeli military officials supported this prognosis, saying that Israeli intelligence believed the new Supreme Leader has suffered minor wounds to his legs and lower body. The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday quoted similar Israeli estimates that Mojtaba Khamenei is “injured but still functioning as Iran’s leader.”
Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, Alireza Salarian, told the UK Guardian on Wednesday that Mojtaba was injured in the same attack on Day One of Operation Epic Fury that killed his father and five other family members at Ayatollah Khamenei’s residence.
“He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment but I haven’t seen that reflected in the foreign news,” Salarian complained.
“I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm,” the ambassador added. “I think he is in the hospital because he is injured.”
While Salarian refused to speculate on whether Mojtaba was fully functional, he did express doubts that the new Supreme Leader would be “comfortable” giving a speech.
The Guardian noted that Yousef Pezeshkian, a government adviser and son of President Masoud Pezeshkian, said on social media that he heard Mojtaba had been injured, but was now “safe and sound.”
