United States Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and likely disfigured,” a day after the cleric issued a written statement vowing to continue the war.
Speaking on Friday, Hegseth said, “We know the new so-called (not-so) Supreme Leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement.”
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father’s dead. He’s scared. He’s injured. He’s on the run. And he lacks legitimacy. It’s a mess for them. Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know,” the war secretary added.
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Hegseth also criticised the message issued by the Iranian leader, saying, “He called for unity. Apparently, killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity.”
Expanding on his remarks, Hegseth said the Iranian leadership sees the United States and Israel as closely aligned against it. “Looking up, the IRGC and Iranian regime see only two things on the side of the aircraft: the Stars and Stripes and the Star of David,” he said. Calling it “the evil regime’s worst nightmare.”
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump had earlier told Fox News that Mojtaba Khamenei was “damaged” and that “he’s probably alive in some form.”
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The comments came a day after Mojtaba Khamenei released a written message pledging to continue the war amid escalating tensions in the region.
The statement was issued on Thursday and marked the cleric’s public message after assuming Iran’s top post following the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli strike.
In his first public remarks since assuming the role, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed that Iran would “not refrain from avenging the blood” of Iranians killed in the conflict and warned Gulf Arab countries hosting American forces to shut down US military bases, saying the notion of American protection was “nothing more than a lie.”
Speaking on Thursday, he also threatened to open “other fronts” in the conflict as tensions in the region continue to escalate.