Iran’s Shadow Ruler: How Khamenei’s Son Steers the Nation Amidst Supreme Leader’s Health Crisis

Speculation is swirling around Iran’s new Supreme Leader, with rumors suggesting he might be “in a coma,” has lost a leg, or could even be deceased. A statement attributed to him was read on state television, adding to the mystery.

This afternoon, a news anchor delivered a written statement supposedly from Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, on state TV.

Khamenei himself was notably absent from the broadcast, further fueling speculation about his health and whereabouts. Rumors abound that he might be too ill to personally deliver the statement or perhaps was killed in an airstrike.

The statement declared that Iran remains committed to avenging the “blood of its martyrs.”

After succeeding his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated on February 28, the Iranian leader emphasized the importance of maintaining amicable relations with Gulf neighbors while affirming that attacks on U.S. bases in the area would persist.

He said: ‘We are not an enemy of the countries around us, and we are only targeting the bases of those Americans.’

The newly declared Ayatollah’s statement added that Iran needed to improve relations with its neighbours: ‘We send a message to the leaders of the region and emphasise that we are going to have good relations with the countries around us.’

His declaration called for all American bases in the region to be immediately closed in his shared message: ‘The existence of the US bases in [Iran’s neighbours] and usage of those bases to attack Iran is not benefiting the region and they must be closed.’

He also said Iran will seek compensation from its enemies or destroy their assets accordingly, and offered financial compensation to those in Iran who have been hurt by the outbreak of violence: ‘A limited amount of this revenge has so far taken concrete form, but until it is fully achieved, this case will remain among our priorities.’

The Iranian leader hinted at Iran’s proxies in the region supporting his nation, claiming that armed groups in Iraq ‘want to help’ his nation, while those in Yemen ‘will also do the job.’ 

He also spoke of the loss of many members of his family during the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his father: ‘I lost my father, I lost my wife. My sister lost her child as well as the husband who has been martyred.

‘But what it makes it easier for us to endure all these plights is to trust the grace of God and to know that patience is going to resolve it.’ 

Despite the release of the statement, Mojtaba is said to be in intensive care at the Sina University Hospital in the city’s historic quarter surrounded by security officials, according to a source in Tehran. A section of the hospital has been sealed off to guard Iran’s Supreme Leader. 

It is unclear whether Mojtaba was injured in the same air strikes which killed his 86-year-old father. 

Mojtaba Khamenei (pictured) had his first written message read out on Iranian state TV today 

The Supreme Leader’s statement was read on state TV by a news anchor (pictured) 

A source, who does not want to be named out of fear for his life, said the new Supreme Leader is under the care of Mohammad Reza Zafarghandi, Iran’s Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education and one of the country’s top trauma surgeons. 

Mr Zafarghandi’s Persian Wikipedia page details eight years’ experience operating in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The regime’s most trusted doctor was also injured by chemical weapons himself in the war. 

He is believed to be assisted by another senior surgeon, Dr Mohammad Marashi – the brother of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s wife and a trusted figure in the Islamic regime. 

The wounded Supreme Leader is also reported to have received a visit from the current Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian two days ago. The president is believed to be being fully briefed on Khamenei’s condition. 

The source told the Sun through secret messages sent to an exiled dissident based in London: ‘One or two of his legs have been cut off. His liver or stomach has also ruptured. He is apparently in a coma as well.’ 

While the new Supreme Leader has also not been seen for weeks, Iran is being run by regional commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are believed to be under orders to fight on indefinitely – even without a leader.

It is impossible to verify the condition of Iran’s new Supreme Leader due to the regime’s current internet blackout, but Iranian state TV have referred to Mojtaba as ‘Jaanbaz of Ramadan’ – meaning ‘wounded war veteran’. 

Many believe the regime is being run by a ‘Ghost Ayatollah’, as the rogue state continues hitting neighbouring Gulf nations and sending oil and gas prices soaring. 

It comes as another source, a former study partner of Mojtaba, revealed that the new Supreme Leader is said to be ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and is ‘more dangerous’ than his father. 

Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly unafraid of ‘killing thousands’ and will ‘try and control the region’ if war breaks out, exiled official Jaber Rajabi has revealed. 

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has lost a leg and is in a coma, a report has claimed 

Iranian boats appear to have struck two fuel tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, setting them ablaze and killing one crew member

Authorities in Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Ayatollah’s second son, as Iran’s new Supreme Leader on Sunday. Mojtaba is said to be ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and will not hesitate to ‘kill thousands’

Rajabi, a former foreign policy advisor to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has lived in exile in the UAE since 2021, studied at a ‘religious seminary’ with Mojtaba Khamenei in Qom. 

He has spoken out to warn that Iran’s new Supreme Leader is more ruthless than his father and a ‘better liar’. 

Rajabi told the Jerusalem Post: ‘Mojtaba will not, from the first day in power, claim to want to take Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

‘He is opposite to his father, who gets angry, and it is visible… Mojtaba can lie in a much better way and knows how to play.’

While studying with Mojtaba at The Qom Seminary – the most highly regarded centre for Islamic scholarship in Iran – Rajabi described him as ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and that he believed ‘he himself will have a special part in hastening humanity down that path’. 

According to Twelver Shia – the largest branch of Shia Islam studied by Khamenei at Qom – the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed to be in hiding, will return at the end of times to establish a period of global justice in which oppression is eradicated. 

Islamic apocalyptic traditions describe major conflicts happening before this era, including the Malhama al-Kubra – a great battle sometimes interpreted as a confrontation with Western powers.  

Rajabi said: ‘I remember Khamenei spoke in Hawza studies (and) said the nuclear issue and the soldiers are his heritage. Mojtaba’s ambitions will not be impacted by airstrikes. 

‘There are other matters I can’t mention… They need the nuclear issue as a protection for their regime and their hegemony in the region.’ 

Rajabi added that Khamenei had a disregard for human life, saying: ‘If he can kill 13,000 of his own people, then he has no problem killing 100,000 in Tel Aviv, because if you don’t care about the lives of your own people, why would you care about the lives of others in Tel Aviv?’  

A ship burns after Iranian explosive-laden boats appear to have been attacked last night by more missiles and drone strikes from the US and Israel

The comments come as Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly in hospital in a coma with serious injuries. 

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who has not been seen in public or pictured since taking over from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, is believed to have been injured in the attack on his father’s compound in Tehran on the first day of the war. 

‘He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment,’ Alireza Salarian, Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, told The Guardian.

‘I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm… I think he is in the hospital because he is injured.’

Mojtaba’s injuries are behind his mysterious absence from the public eye, the ambassador said, adding he also wants to avoid the glare of Israel and the US. 

He said: ‘I don’t think he is comfortable [in any condition] to give a speech.’

Iranian officials have claimed he remains alert and is sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication. 

Some sources claim Mojtaba, who did not attend his own succession rally, has no idea the war is even happening, or that his wife and son have been killed. 

The ‘vengeful’ hardline cleric was marked for assassination by Israel after it vowed to ‘eliminate’ whoever succeeded the slain Ayatollah, having killed him, Mojtaba’s wife Zahra Haddad-Adel and one of his sons in strikes on Tehran on the first day of the war.

Donald Trump also ramped up his threats against the supreme leader, claiming he won’t be able to ‘live in peace’ and warning Iran to brace for ‘death, fire and fury.’

Mojtaba has never given a public speech since succeeding his father and there is now speculation that he is dead. 

It comes after Iran’s unrelenting attacks on shipping traffic and energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf pushed oil back above $100 a barrel today, as American and Israeli strikes pounded the Islamic Republic with no sign of an end to the war in sight.

Iran is trying to inflict enough global economic pain to pressure the United States and Israel to halt their bombardment. 

Iran’s president said its attacks would continue until Iran gets security guarantees against another assault, indicating that even a ceasefire or US declaration of victory might not halt the conflict.

Trump has meanwhile promised to ‘finish the job,’ even though he claimed Iran is ‘virtually destroyed.’

But US energy secretary Chris Wright admitted that the US is not in a position to escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz. 

He told CNBC: ‘ It’ll happen relatively soon but it can’t happen now We’re simply not ready. All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities and the manufacturing industry that supplies their offensive capabilities.’

Iran-backed Hezbollah militants meanwhile launched some 200 rockets from Lebanon at northern Israel while sirens rang out and loud booms from the interception of Iranian missiles could be heard in other areas. 

Israel launched another wave of attacks on Tehran and in Lebanon, where 11 people were killed.

The UN refugee agency said up to 3.2 million people in Iran have been displaced by the ongoing war. It said most have fled from Tehran and other major cities toward the north of the country or rural areas. It says at least 759,000 people have been internally displaced in Lebanon.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian suggested on Thursday that for the war to end, the world would need to recognize Iran’s ‘legitimate rights,’ pay reparations and offer guarantees against future attacks.

In addition to attacking energy infrastructure around the region, Iran has a stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway leading from the Persian Gulf toward the Indian Ocean through which a fifth of the world’s oil is transported.

Amid speculation that the US might target Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s main oil terminal, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf threatened in a social media post that any attempt to take Iranian islands would ‘make the Persian Gulf run with the blood of invaders.’

With traffic in the strait effectively stopped, the price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose another 9% to more than $100 a barrel, up some 38% over what it cost when the war started. Prices have swung back and forth in recent days, at one point surging to around $120 a barrel.

Footage has now been released of the Iranian strike and sees a huge orange flash in the middle of the water, followed by rapidly spreading flames

It was a sleepless night for many Israelis as Hezbollah launched some 200 rockets at the country’s north and deeper into Israel, according to the Israeli military.

‘The noise was extraordinary, it was really scary,’ said Naama Porat, a resident of the rural community of Klil, around nine miles from the Lebanese border. As the sound of explosions and interceptions rang out, she dashed with her son to a shelter and spent the night there.

No serious injuries were reported, but the extent of the fire shook residents of the north, who have repeatedly been told by their leaders that Hezbollah was dealt a devastating blow in 2024 during its last war with Israel.

‘They have stocks of weapons and it just doesn’t end. We don’t know how much and what to expect,’ Porat said.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Lebanon that if its government does not prevent Hezbollah from attacking, Israel ‘will take the territory and do it ourselves.’

Israel, meantime, hit a car in a seaside area of Lebanon’s capital where dozens of displaced people have been sheltering, killing eight and wounding 31, the Lebanese Health Ministry said. The Israeli military said it was ‘not aware’ of a strike at that location.

The Israeli military said it struck a nuclear facility in Iran in recent days. Israel had destroyed the ‘Taleghan 2’ site in an airstrike in October 2024. Earlier this year satellite photos raised concerns that Iran was working to restore the facility.

The US and Israel say that destroying whatever remains of Iran’s nuclear program is one of the central aims of the war. They have long suspected Iran seeks nuclear weapons, while the Islamic Republic says its nuclear program is peaceful.

In Tehran, security force checkpoints came under attack for the first time on Wednesday night. At least 10 people were killed in the suspected drone assaults.

Israel and the US military did not immediately respond to requests for comment over whether they were behind the attacks.

Iran’s latest attacks on its Gulf neighbours flouted a UN Security Council resolution approved Wednesday.

Early on Thursday morning, a container ship was hit with a projectile off the coast of Dubai, sparking a small fire. 

An Iranian attack sparked a major fire on Muharraq Island, home to Bahrain’s international airport. Kuwait authorities said an Iranian drone smashed into a residential building, wounding two people, and that a drone attack on Kuwait International Airport had caused damage but no casualties.

The UAE said it had activated air defences twice to protect Dubai from attacks, and firefighters extinguished a blaze at a tower after a drone hit.

Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, said it shot down a drone targeting the diplomatic quarter in its capital, Riyadh, and other drones in the east, including at least one trying to target its Shaybah oil field.

Following an attack on Iraq’s Basra port Wednesday that killed at least one person, officials said Thursday that operations were halted at all the country’s oil terminals.

In the UAE, Citibank said it would close all but one of its branches due to an Iranian threat – not yet realized – to target financial institutions in the region.