Iran on Sunday circulated an unusual video of its supreme leader looking apparently healthy, a release that comes after months out of public view and amid persistent reports that his condition has worsened.
The semi-official Mehr News Agency published footage showing 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei seated in a circle and speaking with several men. The clip, however, offered no details about when or where it was recorded.
In the video, Khamenei showed no visible sign of the serious wounds he was believed to have sustained during the opening airstrikes of the war that killed his father, raising the possibility that the footage was filmed before the conflict began.
Khamenei, who has not appeared publicly for nearly six months, suffered major injuries to his leg and face in the Feb. 28 strike on his father’s compound, according to accounts from Washington and Tehran.
Sources close to the supreme leader told Reuters that his face was disfigured in the attack and that he has since been kept away from public appearances. More recent reports have suggested he has been dealing with health complications linked to those injuries.
Iranian officials have repeatedly rejected claims that Khamenei’s health is in decline, as well as allegations that he functions largely as a figurehead for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which supports his rule.
Qasem Qoraishi, a deputy in Iran’s Basij Organization, indicated Sunday that the Mehr video may be the first in a broader series of releases intended to show Khamenei is healthy and still directly involved in government decision-making.
Qoraishi said additional footage and documentation are expected to be released, including material showing Khamenei in public on the streets of Tehran and attending meetings with Iran’s armed forces.
The videos will “once again bring disgrace upon the enemies and detractors of the Iranian people,” he said.
One of the videos will be of the mysterious supposed July meeting between Khamenei and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who suggested last week that he might not have met the supreme leader at all.
Pezeshkian said he allegedly spoke with Khamenei after agents shoved him into the back seat of a dark car with blacked-out windows in a secret location in Tehran.
The president noted that he could not actually see the man he spoke with for only a few minutes, making it unclear whether the person he met with was really Khamenei.
Iran previously released AI-produced images of Khamenei after the initial rumors that he had been killed in the Feb. 28 airstrike.
With Post wires
