Mojtaba Khamenei Was 'Pulled From Rubble' After February Strikes, Vanished To An Unknown Location

Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei had to be “pulled from the rubble” after the February strikes by the United States and Israel that killed his father and predecessor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an Iranian cleric revealed in an interview with Qatari television this week.

February 28 marked the opening day of the West Asia war, when the US-Israel alliance launched coordinated strikes on Iran, killing Khamenei and many of his family members. Three different hospitals in Tehran were also targeted in strikes in the days that followed.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was pulled from underneath the rubble of one of the hospitals, before vanishing to an unknown location. Since then, he has stayed out of public view and refrained from issuing verbal statements.

“Even after he had been wounded and taken to the hospital, three hospitals in Tehran were bombed,” Mohsen Heydari, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, told Qatari television network Al Araby. 

“Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble”.

How Mojtaba Was Chosen For Top Post

Heydari said that the younger Khamenei, “probably gay”, was unaware of the fact that he had been named the new Supreme Leader until the announcement was made publicly.

According to a report by the New York Post, Heydari was the first person to recommend Mojtaba’s name for the top post, defyingUS President Donald Trump, who had warned against choosing the slain leader’s son because he was even more of a hardliner than his father.

“Given the enemy’s position, we will choose and elect no one as leader and supreme guide of the Islamic Republic except Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei,” he recalled saying.

Heydari said the decision to appoint the younger Khamenei as the Supreme Leader followed information that he was “healthy” and “able to lead”.

“We obtained information that Mojtaba Khamenei was healthy and able to lead, and we determined that he met the requirements of religious qualification, justice and competence to manage the country,” he said.

Again, Where Is Mojtaba?

While several US officials have claimed that Mojtaba Khamenei is “severely wounded”, Iran asserts that the Supreme Leader is “completely healthy” and remains out of public view due to security reasons.

Last month, Trump said “I don’t think he’s dead” when asked about the Iranian leader’s condition. “He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded, but I don’t think he’s dead,” he said.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian, on the other hand, told Fox News in a recent interview that junior Khamenei was “completely healthy”.