Reports emerging from Tehran suggest that Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is in a critical condition. Allegedly, he is in a coma and has suffered the loss of a leg following serious injuries sustained during air strikes.
Mojtaba, who is 56 years old, is currently receiving intensive medical care at the Sina University Hospital, located in the historic district of the city. Security personnel are reportedly stationed at the hospital to ensure his protection, as disclosed by a source familiar with the situation.
It remains uncertain if Mojtaba’s injuries are linked to the same attack that claimed the life of his father, the former Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was 86 when he died on February 28.
The insider, speaking under the condition of anonymity due to concerns for personal safety, revealed that Mojtaba is being treated by Mohammad Reza Zafargjani. Zafargjani is not only Iran’s Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education but also one of the nation’s leading trauma surgeons.
In clandestine communications relayed to an exiled dissident based in London, the source conveyed grim details: “One or two of his legs have been cut off. His liver or stomach has also ruptured. He is apparently in a coma as well.”
Adding to the tension, another informant, who once studied alongside Mojtaba, described him as being preoccupied with apocalyptic ideologies. This former associate warns that Mojtaba might pose a greater threat than his predecessor, his own father.
Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly unafraid of ‘killing thousands’ and will ‘try and control the region’ if war breaks out, exiled official Jaber Rajabi has revealed.
Rajabi, a former foreign policy advisor to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has lived in exile in the UAE since 2021, studied at a ‘religious seminary’ with Mojtaba Khamenei in Qom.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is ‘more dangerous’ than his father and a ‘better liar’ according to his former study partner
The US-Israel and Iran conflict has impacted Gulf states across the Middle East. Pictured: fireball rising from the site of an Israeli air strike overnight in Beirut on March 11
Authorities in Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei, the late Ayatollah’s second son, as Iran’s new Supreme Leader on Sunday. Mojtaba is said to be ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and will not hesitate to ‘kill thousands’
He has spoken out to warn that Iran’s new Supreme Leader is more ruthless than his father and a ‘better liar’.
Rajabi told the Jerusalem Post: ‘Mojtaba will not, from the first day in power, claim to want to take Al-Quds (Jerusalem).
‘He is opposite to his father, who gets angry, and it is visible… Mojtaba can lie in a much better way and knows how to play.’
While studying with Mojtaba at The Qom Seminary – the most highly regarded centre for Islamic scholarship in Iran – Rajabi described him as ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and that he believed ‘he himself will have a special part in hastening humanity down that path’.
According to Twelver Shia – the largest branch of Shia Islam studied by Khamenei at Qom – the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed to be in hiding, will return at the end of times to establish a period of global justice in which oppression is eradicated.
Islamic apocalyptic traditions describe major conflicts happening before this era, including the Malhama al-Kubra – a great battle sometimes interpreted as a confrontation with Western powers.
Rajabi said: ‘I remember Khamenei spoke in Hawza studies (and) said the nuclear issue and the soldiers are his heritage. Mojtaba’s ambitions will not be impacted by airstrikes.
‘There are other matters I can’t mention… They need the nuclear issue as a protection for their regime and their hegemony in the region.’
Rajabi added that Khamenei had a disregard for human life, saying: ‘If he can kill 13,000 of his own people, then he has no problem killing 100,000 in Tel Aviv, because if you don’t care about the lives of your own people, why would you care about the lives of others in Tel Aviv?’
The comments come as Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly in hospital with serious injuries after being blasted in the same strike that killed his father, according to a regime official.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who has not been seen in public or pictured since taking over from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, was injured in the attack on his father’s compound in Tehran on the first day of the war.
Mojtaba, described as a ‘wounded veteran’ of the war by Iranian state TV, suffered injuries to his legs and is currently in hospital.
‘He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment,’ Alireza Salarian, Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, told The Guardian.
‘I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm… I think he is in the hospital because he is injured.’
Mojtaba’s injuries are behind his mysterious absence from the public eye, the ambassador said, adding he also wants to avoid the glare of Israel and the US.
He said: ‘I don’t think he is comfortable [in any condition] to give a speech.’
Iranian officials have claimed he remains alert and is sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication.
The ‘vengeful’ hardline cleric has been marked for assassination by Israel after it vowed to ‘eliminate’ whoever succeeded the slain Ayatollah, having killed him, Mojtaba’s wife Zahra Haddad-Adel and one of his sons in strikes on Tehran on the first day of the war.
Donald Trump also ramped up his threats against the supreme leader, claiming he won’t be able to ‘live in peace’ and warning Iran to brace for ‘death, fire and fury.’
In one report on Mojtaba’s ascension to supreme leader on Iranian state TV, it refers to him as being wounded in the war.
The anchor describes him as ‘janbaz’, or wounded by the enemy, in the ‘Ramadan war,’ which is how media in Iran refer to the current conflict.
It did not elaborate on how he was injured, although his wife and father were killed in Israeli strikes.
