A significant claim has emerged regarding Iran’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. Mohsen Heidari, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, stated that Mojtaba Khamenei—who had been hospitalized after being injured in attacks in February—was pulled from the rubble following a bombing. He made this claim during an interview with the Qatari television network Al-Arabi.
According to Heidari, Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in initial attacks and taken to a hospital for treatment. Subsequently, three hospitals in Tehran were targeted. Heidari claimed that Mojtaba was present at the third hospital, from where he was rescued from the debris after the bombing.
Heidari stated that Mojtaba Khamenei was then taken to an undisclosed location. Reports indicate that he has not been seen in public since then, although conflicting claims regarding his health and status have continued to surface.
Attack on the Assembly of Experts Meeting
Heidari also provided details regarding the process of electing Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader. According to him, the Qom-based secretariat of the Assembly of Experts—the body responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader—was also targeted in an attack. It is claimed that eight people died in this attack and documents related to the succession were destroyed.
Heidari stated that members wrote their votes on paper and were then summoned to a secret room. He claimed to be one of the initial members to propose Mojtaba Khamenei’s name.
Conflicting Figures Regarding Mojtaba Khamenei’s Election
Varying reports have emerged regarding the vote count for Mojtaba Khamenei’s election as Supreme Leader. According to Haidari, out of the 59 members present at the meeting, 50 voted in favor of Mojtaba Khamenei, while eight votes went to Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and one member abstained. Iran International had also reported the presence of approximately 59 members and a vote count of around 50 or more.
Haidari claimed that Mojtaba Khamenei learned of his selection only after the announcement was made on state television. However, independent verification of various aspects of these claims is not evident from publicly available sources.
Conflicting reports regarding Mojtaba Khamenei’s condition have surfaced in the past. While US officials and other reports had suggested he was critically injured, information from Iranian sources regarding his status has varied. Consequently, the latest claim about him being pulled from the rubble of a hospital rests solely on Haidari’s statement for the time being.
