Iran supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei ‘thanks Iraqi people for their support’, state media reports

Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has thanked the Iraqi people and religious leadership for their support of Iran “in the face of aggression”, Iran’s state media reported on Sunday, without saying how this message was conveyed.

More than three weeks on from his appointment as supreme leader, Khamenei has still not been seen or heard from in public since he was injured in the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his father, the late ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his wife and son on the first day of the war.

Several written statements that have been attributed to Khamenei have been delivered via state media, fuelling speculation about the extent of his injuries. Days ago, Donald Trump claimed that the new supreme leader is “either dead or in very bad shape, because no one has heard from him”.

The report said the message followed a meeting involving the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq and Iran’s ambassador in Baghdad.

‘We don’t know if he is living’

Khamenei has not appeared in public since he was named Iran’s supreme leader after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an air strike at the start of the war.

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Since then, only a few written statements attributed to him have been released through state media, including a message for Nowruz. These statements have been read out by others, and no recent verified images or videos have been shown.

His absence has led to questions about his condition and whereabouts. Iranian officials have said he is recovering from injuries sustained in an air strike.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump recently said Washington had not heard directly from Khamenei. “We have not heard from the son… We don’t know if he is living,” Trump said.

Khamenei is the third supreme leader of Iran since the 1979 revolution, succeeding his father and the country’s founding leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.