Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei , survived a strike on the country’s leadership compound in Tehran after leaving the building minutes before it was hit, a senior official said on Friday, as authorities sought to counter rumours about his condition.
Mohsen Qomi, head of the international affairs office at the Iranian supreme leader's office, said Khamenei "remains in full health and continues to run the country", adding that he is "managing both negotiations and the field".
Rumours had previously swirled that the Iranian leader was dead, comatose, left unable to walk or severely disfigured. Speaking in a video published by the conservative Fars News Agency , Qomi said the leader had recently issued guidance to Iran’s negotiating team.
"He has recently provided some remarks to the negotiating delegation on what they should do and has full oversight over these matters," he said.
Qomi also dismissed speculation about Khamenei’s health and public absence, describing it as part of an effort by Iran’s adversaries.
"This is deception by the enemy, which seeks to claim: why does he not appear? Why does he not send an audio or video message? And why do those who have met him not come out to say so?" he said.
"Through the repetition of these questions, they want to distract us with something while they move ahead with implementing their plans. What matters most to us now is that everyone cooperates to preserve the safety of the Leader of the Revolution," he added.
Qomi said Khamenei had been inside the targeted building shortly before the strike.
"He was in his building before it was struck, but had left it just minutes earlier to go outside for some task, which led to his survival," he said, adding that all those inside the building were killed. He confirmed that the leader was injured in the attack but did not disclose the nature of the injury.
The strike on the leadership compound in central Tehran took place on 28 February, during what Iranian officials described as the first day of US-Israeli attacks on Iran.
The attack killed former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, along with Mojtaba Khamenei's wife and son.
The New York Times had reported that since then, access to the Supreme Leader has been tightly restricted, with only a limited circle of primarily medical personnel attending to him as he recovers from injuries sustained in the strikes.
In separate remarks, Mohsen Rezaei, a member of Iran’s Expediency Discernment Council, urged the Iranian public to ignore speculation about the leader’s condition.
Speaking to Iranian state television on Wednesday, he said citizens should "not listen at all to rumours being spread about the Leader of the Revolution and the armed forces", adding that the leader "is a young man with great energy".
Rezaei said that such rumours were intended to provoke a reaction. "These rumours they are spreading about the Leader of the Revolution are intended to push him, or those around him, into some kind of reaction, so that the Zionist entity can determine his location and target him," he said.
He added that Khamenei "is running the country with strength and wisdom, so do not pay attention to such falsehoods".