Featured Image Credit: SAUL LOEB / AFP via Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Iran, Politics, World News
Jen Thomas
Topics: Donald Trump, Iran, Politics, World News
US President Donald Trump has claimed that Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is 'not alive'.
Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to be the new Supreme Leader, after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in airstrikes from the US and Israel at the start of the conflict.
Trump has now told NBC he has heard that Khamenei is 'not alive' following reports the new leader was in a coma.
The 56-year-old has not been seen in public since the start of the war or after being named his father's successor.
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A statement alleged to have come from him was read out on Iranian national television last week (March 12) demanding the immediate closure of all US bases in the region.
The POTUS has said that if Khamenei is in fact alive, he should 'surrender'.
It has been reported by several outlets that Khamenei has lost at least one leg and is in a coma following further strikes on Iran.
Trump said: “I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him, I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender.” Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is disputing Trump's claim, and the Mirror reports he said: "The Leader of the Revolution is in full health and is fully managing the situation" and that there is 'no problem' with the leader.
Trump also told NBC he had some ideas about who should be running Iran instead: “We have people that are living that would be great leaders for the future of the country.”
When pressed, he did not want to say who his pick was because he didn't want to 'put them in jeopardy'.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth told a press conference on Friday that Khamenei was 'wounded and likely disfigured'.
He said the fact the new Supreme Leader failed to appear on camera for the warning and had someone else reading a statement was further proof that something ws very wrong: “Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why."
"His father: dead; he’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy,” Hegseth added.
One person who is disputing the rumours is Türkiye's foreign minister Hakan Fidan, who has made contact with Iranian officials.
He said he does not know is Khamenei is severely wounded but said 'what we know is that he is alive and functioning'.
There has even been claims that Khamenei has been 'secretly flown to Russia' for surgery in Vladimir Putin's palace, according to the Metro.
They report that a Kuwaiti newspaper called Al-Jarida alleged the new leader had been pulled out of the bunker strike alive after it killed his wife, mother, father and son.
The Sun says the report is unconfirmed but it is claimed that he was flown to Moscow on Russian military aircraft, and the information came from a 'high-ranking source close to the new Iranian Supreme Leader’.