'Healthy' yet absent from public view: Iranian diplomat explains Mojtaba Khamenei's security-driven seclusion
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is in full health and is regularly conducting state affairs, senior Iranian diplomat and the Supreme Leader's representative Abdul Majid Hakim Elahi has claimed. He said Khamenei is not appearing directly in public or before the media because of security concerns and the risk of assassination attempts.
The diplomat made the remarks in a recent interview with Indian news outlet NDTV. Through his comments, Tehran has sought to answer the speculation that has surrounded Mojtaba Khamenei's health and whereabouts for the past several months.
The background is this — on 28 February, the then Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli airstrikes. Mojtaba Khamenei was also seriously injured in those strikes.
After his father's death, Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed the country's new Supreme Leader, but he has not been seen in public in the past eight months. His absence from major events, including his father's burial, fuelled wide speculation about his physical condition and whereabouts.
Elahi, however, dismissed the rumours, saying: 'He (Mojtaba Khamenei) is well and is running the country beautifully. Just last week he held a long, seven-hour meeting with our president. Our speaker also held a long meeting with him.'
He added that at night Mojtaba Khamenei sometimes goes out onto the streets in ordinary clothes and joins anti-US marches with the people. But because of security and the risk to his life, he does not appear before the media.
Abdul Majid Hakim Elahi also said Mojtaba Khamenei was present at his father's burial — rejecting the discussion that had centred on his supposed absence from the funeral.
Earlier, responsible and senior Iranian government sources had indicated that after suffering injuries to his face and body in the attack, he remained under treatment while taking all of the country's policy decisions from behind the scenes. Authority over wartime crisis decisions, economic management and military activity rests in his hands, although he has delegated some administrative work to senior officials.
Meanwhile, earlier this month US President Donald Trump claimed that in the ongoing eight-month war in the Middle East, Iran's leadership has collapsed and nobody knows who is running the country. US Vice President JD Vance also said that while they had spoken with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, it was unclear who holds Iran's real decision-making power.
Iran has directly rejected the US claim. A foreign ministry spokesman said Iran's decision-making process is highly organised and that US officials know very well who they need to talk to.
All in all, the two sides' statements stand at opposite poles. Washington says it is unclear where the centre of Iran's leadership lies; Tehran says the Supreme Leader is healthy, holds regular meetings and that all policy decisions pass through his hands — he simply does not appear before cameras for security reasons.
When Mojtaba Khamenei will appear in public is still unknown. His first public appearance would be the biggest answer to this speculation. Until then, the two sides' competing claims about his position look set to continue.
