Mojtaba Khamenei has remained involved in the Iranian leadership's decision-making mechanism, a Western diplomatic official told Israel Hayom on Wednesday. The official's remarks come against the backdrop of conflicting reports regarding Mojtaba's condition following the strike that killed his father, and the fact that he has not been seen in public since.
Mojtaba escaped the strike that killed his father by a matter of seconds, according to a recording leaked to the British Telegraph. According to the remarks of a senior official in Ali Khamenei's office who survived the attack, Mojtaba stepped out into the compound courtyard on the morning of February 28 just as ballistic missiles struck the site. Mojtaba's wife, son, and other relatives were killed in the strike.
Since the attack, Mojtaba has not appeared in public even once. When he released his first statement as supreme leader on March 12, it was read by a narrator on state television – without audio or video of him. CNN reported that he has suffered a broken foot, bruising around his left eye, and facial lacerations. Israeli officials told the New York Times that he was injured in his legs and is staying in a secured location with limited communication.
Amid the ongoing absence, a flurry of rumors has flourished. The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported that Mojtaba was secretly evacuated to Moscow via a Russian military plane for surgery after Vladimir Putin personally offered the treatment to President Masoud Pezeshkian – a report that Iran has denied.
Opposition channels on social media have gone even further, claiming he lost a leg, is in a coma, or has even died – none of which has received confirmation from any other source. The mystery deepened on Friday when Mojtaba failed to appear publicly even before the Nowruz (the Persian New Year) holiday, eschewing a tradition his father observed annually, and instead sufficed with a written message on Telegram.
Journalist Barak Ravid reported in Axios, citing senior US and Israeli officials, that the CIA and the Mossad are still conducting an active effort to gauge his location and condition. "It is more than strange," a US official told Axios. "We have no proof he is holding the wheel." Two days earlier, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard stated in a House Intelligence Committee hearing that Mojtaba was "very seriously injured" and that the decision-making mechanism in the Iranian leadership "is unclear."
Both Israel and the US have commented on the matter in ways that suggest Mojtaba does not constitute a significant factor in decision-making. Donald Trump told NBC, "I hear he's not alive, and if he is, he needs to do something very smart for his country – and that's surrender." In a separate interview with Fox News, he added, "I think he's hurt, but probably alive in some way." Even before that, when the news of his selection broke, Trump said "He is not acceptable to me." Netanyahu, for his part, mocked Mojtaba at a press conference as a "puppet of the IRGC" who is unable to "appear in public."
Since the start of the war and the vacuum created in Iran's leadership, power has increasingly shifted to the IRGC, which now manages the military campaign and appears to hold veto power over diplomatic decisions. The organization's units are operating in a manner that appears almost independent and according to a pre-prepared plan, according to Western reports and statements from official Iranian sources.
Among the figures mentioned as holding power in Tehran now are the temporary commander of the IRGC, Ahmad Vahidi, and Parliament Speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf. Either way, the boundaries between military command and civilian government are blurring rapidly. The growing assessment is that what is taking shape in Iran is no longer an Islamic Republic in its original sense, but a military junta in every respect.
