US President Donald Trump said he believes Iran's Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but was seriously wounded in the strikes that killed his father, following fresh reports speculating that the younger Khamenei had died. "I don't think he's dead. He was very seriously wounded.
The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don't think he's dead," Trump told conservative commentator Glenn Beck. Trump added he based his assessment on Iranian negotiators' own behaviour.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was selected as ayatollah by Iran's Assembly of Experts on 8 March, days after his father Ali Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli strikes of 28 February that launched the war. He has not appeared in public, in photographs or in any verified video or audio recording since his appointment. He was absent from his father's funeral ceremonies in July.
The Atlantic, citing unnamed sources close to the Iranian government, reported this week that Tehran was "abuzz" with speculation about his fate. Former official and Khamenei relative Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaght told the magazine that fewer than five people had met with Khamenei since March, "due to security precautions." Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian previously said communication with Khamenei had become "extremely difficult”. US media previously reported, citing unnamed Iranian officials, that Mojtaba Khamenei sustained serious injuries in the strikes, has undergone multiple surgeries on his legs and arms, and has difficulty speaking due to severe burns to his face and lips.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was wounded and likely "disfigured". Tehran did not confirm those accounts. Trump also addressed the Strait of Hormuz, claiming it was effectively open.
"We take a lot of ships through the strait now. We're taking them in," he said, adding that mines had been cleared. The strait remains formally closed to unrestricted commercial traffic under Iranian authority.
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