Mojtaba Khamenei’s absence fuels doubts over Iran’s leadership

Tehran, Iran. Six months after airstrikes began the war and left Mojtaba Khamenei badly wounded before he assumed the role of Iran’s supreme leader, he has not been seen or heard publicly by Iranians.

Leadership vacuum

Questions about Khamenei’s condition and role are becoming increasingly fraught as Iran faces major decisions over a war that has inflamed the Middle East and further damaged the country’s already fragile economy.

Iranian officials and other senior sources said Khamenei remains in control and is ruling from the shadows for security reasons while recovering from disfiguring wounds. They said he has delegated broad day-to-day authority to a group of senior figures.

No photograph, video or audio message has been released since his appointment a week into the war, however, increasing scepticism over his position in an Islamic Republic where the leader’s voice is intended to be absolute.

“The question is no longer whether Mojtaba is alive, but whether Iran still has a functioning supreme leader,” Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute in Washington said.

Officials cite security concerns

Khamenei’s only messages to Iranians have been written statements read aloud by news broadcasters. He was also absent from the week of funeral rites held for his father last month.

Senior officials and other insiders attributed his absence to fears of assassination. They said he holds frequent meetings with leading figures, receives all major reports and makes final decisions on important issues.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said on August 10 that he had held a seven-hour meeting with Khamenei.

Supporters seek public reassurance

Doubts are also emerging among some of the Islamic Republic’s hardline supporters.

“We need to hear our leader’s voice, or see any sign that he is there on top and leading the country to give us more confidence,” a member of the Basij volunteer militia in Qom, the seminary city central to Iran’s theocratic state, said.