President Trump speculated at length Monday about the fate of Mojtaba Khamenei, pointing out that no one has seen him in public even as a new recording indicated the Iranian supreme leader initially survived the bombing that killed his father last month.
“A lot of people are saying that he’s badly disfigured. They’re saying that he lost his leg, one leg, and he’s been hurt very badly. Other people are saying he’s dead,” Trump told reporters in the White House East Room.
Mojtaba Khamenei made his first statement Thursday since being named to replace his late father four days earlier, on March 8 — but the message was read out by an anchor on Iranian state TV and there have been no confirmed sightings of the new supreme leader since his appointment.
“We haven’t seen” him “at all,” Trump pointed out Monday before admitting that US officials don’t know “if he’s dead or not. Nobody’s seen him, which is unusual.”
A new report, however, indicates the younger Khamenei survived the Israeli strike that killed the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after Mojtaba stepped outside the family compound to walk in the garden minutes before the blast.
The 56-year-old was in Tehran on the night of Feb. 28 when he stepped out “to do something,” The Telegraph reported.
While Mojtaba Khamenei was absent, Israel’s space-faring Blue Sparrow ballistic missiles hit the compound, killing Ali Khamenei along with and dozens of his senior officers and family members.
The Trump administration has not commented on the recording but has said repeatedly they believe the new leader is at least injured.
Khamenei “is wounded and likely disfigured,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth claimed on Friday.
Iran has not given any details about Khamenei’s condition.
The audio reported by the Telegraph is from remarks delivered March 12 by Mazaher Hosseini, a top Iranian government official.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife and son were killed instantly in the Israeli strike and his brother-in-law was decapitated.
Much remains to be learned about the younger Khamenei, who is one of six children of the late ayatollah.
US intelligence indicates Khamenei may be gay — and that his father feared his suitability to rule the Islamic Republic for that reason, The Post revealed earlier Monday.
Trump couldn’t contain his surprise and laughed aloud when he was briefed on the intel, according to sources.
Publicly, the president has said he’s “not happy” with the new leader, whom he has dismissed as a “lightweight” and described as a “mistake” of a choice by Iran.
