Iran’s Health Ministry Says Mojtaba Khamenei Had Superficial Injuries In US-Israeli Strikes

Iran’s health ministry spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei suffered only minor, “superficial” injuries during US-Israeli strikes in February, and that the injuries did not require major medical treatment.

“An official from the Iranian Health Ministry said on Monday that the injuries sustained by Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei as a result of the American and Israeli raids in late February were 'superficial,' revealing rare details about the day of his injury”

Al-Jazeera Net

Kermanpour told ILNA that Mojtaba arrived at a hospital in Tehran around 1 pm local time on February 28 alongside several other wounded individuals, and that the injuries were limited to “superficial injuries to the face, head and legs.”

Al-Jazeera Net

The account came after weeks of speculation following the February 28 US-Israeli strikes that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with Mojtaba named Iran’s supreme leader on March 8 and then issuing only written statements.

Kermanpour added that Mojtaba remained in good health throughout his hospital stay and even continued fasting during Ramadan, refusing to break his fast until iftar.

He said Mojtaba was discharged from hospital in the early hours of March 1, without revealing where he was moved afterwards.

While Iranian officials described Mojtaba Khamenei’s injuries as minor, the BBC reported that “no message has been released from him and he has not appeared publicly or given a speech” since his selection as leader.

The BBC said speculation about his health intensified after Alireza Salarian, Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, told The Guardian in an interview at the Iranian embassy in Nicosia that he had “heard that his legs and arms and his forearm are injured... I think he is in the hospital because he is wounded.”

Anadolu Ajansı

The BBC also said Mojtaba Khamenei was severely wounded on Saturday, the ninth of Esfand, on the day of the Beit Rahbari attack, in which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, along with his wife, daughter, son-in-law and their newborn, were killed.

It added that the Assembly of Experts appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as the third Leader of the Islamic Republic on Monday (the 18th of Esfand), and that the funeral of senior military commanders who were killed in the early days of the Israeli and American attacks took place without him attending.

The BBC further reported that the Iranian ambassador told The Guardian that Ayatollah Khamenei “did not want” his son to succeed him, saying senior clerics asked him but the late leader’s answer was no because he did not want a dynastic system.

On March 12 (21 Esfand), Benjamin Netanyahu called Mojtaba Khamenei the “IRGC puppet” and said he cannot appear in public while also pledging to continue attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“The first written message attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, the new Leader of the Islamic Republic, was broadcast on Iranian television”

BBC

In the same period, the BBC reported that on the thirteenth day of the war between the United States and Israel against Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei’s first written message attributed to him was broadcast on Iranian television, stressing “the 'continuation of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz'.”

The BBC said the message did not refer to reports about his health, and it described his learning of the result of the Assembly of Experts vote on his selection as leader through the state broadcaster Beit Rahbari.

It also quoted the message calling for continuing attacks and for “taking revenge for the blood of martyrs, including those from Minab School,” while pledging reparations and seizure or destruction of enemy wealth.

The BBC further reported that the message said that without launching aggression against regional countries, Iran “have simply attacked those bases,” and that “from now on we will again be forced to continue this.”