New Delhi: Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei‘s face was disfigured and he suffered injury to one of both legs in the joint airstrike launched by the US and Israel in February, people close to him said.
Khamenei is still undergoing treatment for these injuries and recovered from the wounds he suffered in the attack that killed his father at the beginning of the war, all three sources said, Reuters reported.
Though the 56-year-old is not in good shape physically, he remains mentally sharp, the people close to his inner circle said. They further revealed that he is actively holding meetings with senior Iranian officials through audio conferencing and also taking key decisions related to war and negotiations with Washington.
On February 28, the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran, killing its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Following his death, Mojtaba was named as Iran’s new Supreme Leader.
The top Iranian leader has not appeared in public since the attack, fuelling speculation about his well being. With no picture, video or audio of him published since the aerial strike, speculations are rife that he might have suffered major injuries in the attack.
While US President Donald Trump and other officials have repeatedly claimed that he suffered critical injuries in the attack and some even claimed that he was believed to have lost a leg, Iran has not issued any official statement on the extent of his injurie as yet.
Trump recently said that Mojtaba could be dead or in “very bad shape”. He also claimed that the joint strike has wiped out Iran’s top leadership and military power and that the country has no functioning supreme leader. “Their leaders are dead. Their supreme leader is no longer supreme. He is dead. The son is either dead or in very bad shape because nobody’s heard from him,” he had said in Miami.