Mojtaba Khamenei survived second attack after being injured in first US-Israel strike: Report
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Mojtaba Khamenei survived second attack, was chosen secretly: Report Photograph: (AFP)
Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly survived a second strike on a Tehran hospital after being injured in the initial US-Israeli attack that killed his father. An Iranian official also revealed details of his secretive selection as Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts.
Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly suffered a second strike after he was injured in the first US-Israeli strike on Feb 28 that killed his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This attack was on a Tehran hospital where he was taken after being injured in initial attak. However, he survived and was "pulled from the rubble" of a Tehran hospital, according to a report by the New York Post. The report quoted Mohsen Heydari, a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts. He reportedly made the revelation in an interview with Qatari television network Al Araby. The New York Post report also detailed information about the selection process of new Supreme Leader.
“Even after he had been wounded and taken to the hospital, three hospitals in Tehran were bombed. Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble,” Heydari said, according to the New York Post. Heydari also spoke about the process through which Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as Iran’s new supreme leader on March 8. He said Mojtaba Khamenei apparently did not know he had been chosen until the announcement was broadcast on Iranian state television. The report said that Mojtaba Khamenei received 50 of 59 votes during the meeting, while eight members voted for Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and one member abstained.
Heydari revealed that the Assembly of Experts, which is mandated to choose Iran’s supreme leader, was itself reportedly targeted during the strikes. The New York Post reported that its Qom Secretariat was bombed, killing eight people and destroying reports and recommendations concerning the selection of a new supreme leader. Heydari said members of the Assembly subsequently wrote their votes on paper before being summoned to a secret room for the selection process. He recalled being the first member to suggest Mojtaba Khamenei’s name.
“Given the enemy’s position, we will choose and elect no one as leader and supreme guide of the Islamic Republic except Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei,” Heydari said according to the news report. “We obtained information that Mojtaba Khamenei was healthy and able to lead, and we determined that he met the requirements of religious qualification, justice and competence to manage the country,” he said. Heydari also referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as a “man of the shadows”, saying he had not held a political position within the Iranian state before becoming supreme leader, although he had reportedly served as an adviser to his father.
Where is Mojtaba Khamenei?
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Mojtaba Khamenei assumed the position of Supreme Leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in joint US-Israeli military strikes on February 28. Since assuming the role, Mojtaba has not made any public appearances, and has communicated exclusively through written statements. In the first week of August, speculation regarding his well being intensified after Israel's Channel 14, citing sources inside Iran, and a report by The Jerusalem Post, quoting IranWire and sources close to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's administration, flagged grave concerns over his health, claiming that it wouldn't be a surprise “if the news of his martyrdom arrives.”
Also Read: 'I am not...': Trump's first reaction after Iran appoints Mojtaba Khamenei as new Supreme Leader
However, on X, Pezeshkian said he had spent two and a half hours with the country's new leader in a “cordial atmosphere" and had a "very good" meeting. The junior Khamenei did not attend his father's funeral and recent reports by CIA and Israeli media indicate that he is nowhere to be found. After he took over the top role in Iran, reports indicated that he was injured and potentially disfigured in the initial strikes that targeted his father's compound, forcing him into hiding and compelling him to communicate with senior regime figures through a slow network of intermediaries to avoid targeting.
Meanwhile, Trump addressed widespread speculation regarding Khamenei's fate following months of public absence. "I don't think he's dead," Trump said last month. "He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don't think he's dead."
