Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the 28 February attack that killed six of his family members, including his father, Tehran’s ambassador to Cyprus has confirmed.
In an interview conducted at his embassy compound in Nicosia, Alireza Salarian elaborated on the circumstances in which Khamenei, 56, was injured, saying he was lucky to survive the strike, which levelled the late ayatollah’s residence.
“He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment but I haven’t seen that reflected in the foreign news,” he 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.”
Explaining why the cleric had not appeared in public or made any statements since he succeeded his father on Sunday, he added: “I don’t think he is comfortable [in any condition] to give a speech.”
The attack occurred on the opening day of US-led airstrikes against Iran, when the sprawling presidential complex in the heart of Tehran was targeted. It was the 10th day of the holy month of Ramadan, said the ambassador, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was at his residence with several members of his family, including Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra, and his teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, who were also killed in the attack.
Iranian media reports suggested that Ali Khamenei’s wife, Mansour, died three days after the aerial strike.
“The [late] supreme leader was killed with his wife, with his daughter, with his son-in-law and with his daughter’s 14-month-old baby,” said Salarian, who was in Iran when the US-led offensive began. “They were inside their house near the presidential office. Top commanders were also killed as they were also invited. The supreme leader had four sons and two daughters and actually he lived in the same place where he worked.”
On Wednesday Yousef Pezeshkian, a top government adviser and the son of Iran’s president, had said Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded but stopped short of explaining how. In a post on his Telegram channel, he wrote: “I heard news that Mr Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound.” An Iranian official on Wednesday told Reuters that Khamenei was “lightly injured” but still continuing to operate.
Earlier this week Iranian state TV described the regime’s new leader as a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war” but did not specify his injuries.
The US president, Donald Trump, called Mojtaba Khamenei’s election by an 88-member committee of clerics “an unacceptable choice”, adding: “He is not going to last long.”
Israel has warned it will not hesitate to assassinate the Shia cleric, thought to be as hardline as his father, who had held the post for 37 years after the Islamic revolution.
Salarian told the Guardian the late ayatollah “had not wanted his son” to replace him. “High-ranking clergymen did ask him but the late supreme leader said ‘no’ because he didn’t want a dynastic system. He was elected. [After the attack] top-ranking clergymen said: ‘This is your job; you have to obey.’”
Western intelligence services believe the new leader is being deliberately kept out of the public eye for fear of an assassination attempt. “I don’t know if he [the new leader] is worried or not, but we know that the US, and especially Israel, will target him,” the ambassador said.
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