Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been described as wounded in the ongoing conflict, with Iranian state television using a term that strongly suggests he sustained injuries from enemy action, raising fresh questions about the stability of the country’s newly installed leadership.
In reports marking his ascension as supreme leader, Iranian state broadcasters referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as “janbaz,” a Persian term for someone wounded by the enemy, in the context of what Iranian media calls the Ramadan war, the name used domestically for the current conflict with the United States and Israel. No details were given about the nature, location, or severity of the injury.
Israeli security officials separately assessed that Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in an airstrike carried out earlier this week. He has not made any public appearance since the war began on 28 February, when joint United States and Israeli strikes killed his father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with several members of his family.
The ambiguity around the injury report has produced competing interpretations. An analyst on Iranian state television suggested the reference to Khamenei being wounded could relate to service during the 1980s Iran-Iraq War rather than the current conflict, though the differing accounts could not be immediately reconciled. CBS News noted that Mojtaba Khamenei did study theology in Qom and served in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, during which he was injured, an experience that forged his close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
His appointment was confirmed by Iran’s Assembly of Experts on Sunday, with more than two-thirds of the body’s 88 members present. He received approximately 85 percent of votes cast, according to an Assembly member who spoke to state television.
Israel had already threatened to kill whoever was appointed to succeed the elder Khamenei. US President Donald Trump, reacting to the appointment, said any new supreme leader would need Washington’s approval, warning that without it he was “not going to last long.”
The war continues to escalate. Seven United States service members have now been killed during Operation Epic Fury, which was launched on 28 February. Drone strikes have hit Bahrain, Iran has threatened attacks on Gulf energy infrastructure, and oil prices remain above $100 a barrel.
