A social media account connected to Israel’s national intelligence agency claims that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei spends much of his day sleeping and using drugs, while many citizens are deprived of essentials like clean water and electricity.
“How is it possible for a leader to govern when they spend half the day asleep and the other half under the influence of substances?” the Mossad’s Farsi account posted on Friday on X. “Water, electricity, life!”
“Consuming drugs and conversing with spirits are not desirable traits for someone leading a country,” the account wrote on July 9.
The post came from a new X account with a premium subscription created last month, claiming to be the official Mossad spokesperson in Farsi — the official language of Iran — though the Israeli intelligence agency has not officially confirmed the account’s affiliation.
The Mossad-linked account has made several posts over the last month about Khamenei’s health and the state of Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
The account responded to the “lucky winner” who guessed the name Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi and told him to “contact us privately to receive your prize.”
The satirical jabs and provocative claims coming from the account are unlike the way the Mossad usually communicates with the public, but two intelligence experts told JFeed, an Israeli news outlet, that the unusual Mossad-linked account appears to be authentic.
“Some of the information it has shared could only have come from Mossad,” Beny Sabti, an Iran expert at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a former IDF Persian-language officer, told the outlet.
Khamenei’s alleged drug use has been suggested in the past, with an Iranian academic saying in 2022 that the Iranian Supreme Leader often uses drugs.
The Israeli intelligence agency has not officially confirmed the account’s affiliation. (AP)
“Many viewers do not know this, but Khamenei himself uses drugs,” Nour Mohamed Omara said on Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated TV in Turkey at the time.
“He has a special village in Balochistan, where the drugs used by the leader are produced,” the academic added. “This village is run by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and no one is allowed in.”
The Ayatollah publicly declared drug use as “un-Islamic” after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Penalties for drug-related offenses can include death.
