Iran's newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has been injured but is “safe and sound,” the son of Iran's president said on Wednesday, providing the first official explanation for the leader's absence from public view since his appointment over the weekend, news agency AFP reported.
"I heard news that Mr Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections,” Yousef Pezeshkian, a government adviser and the son of President Masoud Pezeshkian, said in a post on his Telegram channel.
“They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound,” he added.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was elevated to Iran's top leadership position after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an air strike during the early phase of the ongoing US-Israel war with Iran. The clerical Assembly of Experts formally appointed him as supreme leader, making him the country's highest political and religious authority.
However, questions had grown over his condition and whereabouts after he failed to appear publicly or deliver a speech following the announcement of his appointment.
Iranian state television earlier described him as a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war,” referring to the conflict that erupted during the Muslim holy month, but provided no further details.
According to a report by The New York Times, citing three unnamed Iranian officials, Mojtaba Khamenei sustained injuries, including to his legs, but remained alert and was being sheltered in a highly secure location with restricted communication.
There has been speculation that he was wounded in the same daytime air strike on a compound in Tehran that killed his father, as well as his mother and wife, on the first day of the war on Feb. 28.
In Tehran, giant billboards have appeared showing Mojtaba symbolically receiving the national flag from his father while Iran's revolutionary founder Ruhollah Khomeini looks on. Thousands of pro-government supporters also carried posters of him during a large rally in the capital earlier this week.
Analysts say the new leader is likely to remain out of public view due to the risk of assassination. Emile Hokayem of the International Institute for Strategic Studies said Khamenei could remain in a secure bunker for an extended period after witnessing the attack that killed several members of his family.
Both the Iranian military and the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have pledged allegiance to him, while allied groups including Yemen's Houthi rebels and Lebanon's Hezbollah have also expressed support, AFP reported.
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