Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, thanked the Iraqi paramilitary groups that have been targeting American bases in the Middle East since the war began a month ago, semi-official IRGC-linked Tasnim News Agency reported.
The message did not include any evidence that Khamenei, who has not been publicly seen since the war began last month, is alive. It also didn’t include details on how the leader of the Islamic regime conveyed the message.
The message is rare for Khamenei, who has only released a handful of statements since becoming Iran’s supreme leader last month after the assassination of his father, Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei’s first message was delivered in a letter allegedly written by the Iranian leader himself, while subsequent messages were conveyed by unspecified means.
During one of his latest messages reported on March 20, Khamenei urged his country’s media to “refrain from focusing on [the country’s] weaknesses.”
In the statement, addressed to the Iranian people on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, Khamenei designated the new year as the year of “Resistance Economy under National Unity and National Security.”
Khamenei probably injured during first days of war
According to US intelligence disclosed by US President Donald Trump, there are high chances that Khamenei was badly injured during the first days of the war.
Sources with knowledge on the matter told The Jerusalem Post on March 21 that Khamenei was alive, but the IRGC was actually running Iran.
According to one source familiar with the details, the balance of power appears to favor the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, rather than Khamenei himself.
“The more likely scenario is that the Revolutionary Guards are controlling him, not the other way around,” one well-informed source stated, adding that “in a few days, we will probably know more.”
Trump also recently revealed that a CIA intelligence revealed Khamenei could be gay, the president confirmed in a Thursday interview with FOX News.
“They did say that,” Trump said, confirming a report by the New York Post earlier in March. He did not elaborate on the intelligence’s reliability.
“A lot of people are saying that,” Trump further noted, adding that the alleged claims regarding Khamenei’s sexual orientation “puts him off to a bad start in that particular country.”
Source: The Jerusalem Post
-- Agencies
