Iran’s reclusive new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive and growing more active, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told senators on Tuesday as talks to end the war stalled.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Rubio said signs suggest the rarely seen leader is taking a firmer hand, though his communications have all been in writing and passed through intermediaries.
“He is increasingly engaging at some level,” Rubio said.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who was reportedly wounded in the US and Israeli attacks and has not appeared in public since taking office, succeeded his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of strikes that opened the war on 28 February.
Rubio voiced hope for an agreement, saying one could come within days, even as negotiations have stalled. Iran is still reviewing a US proposal that President Donald Trump recently hardened, and a truce reached on 8 April underpins the current diplomacy.
He set out firm conditions. Tehran, he said, must declare the Strait of Hormuz open, drop any toll, allow mines to be cleared and stop firing on ships. Iran must also accept severe limits on, or the end of, uranium enrichment, with sanctions relief tied to abandoning its nuclear activities.
The stakes for global energy are high. Before the war, about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed through the Strait of Hormuz, and its disruption has driven a worldwide price shock. Iran has also insisted that a ceasefire in Lebanon form part of any deal.
