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The mystery remains since the strikes on February 28 on the family residence of the new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. As of Friday, April 24, he has still not appeared publicly. The New York Times has provided new revelations in the past few hours.
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On paper, he is the most powerful man in Iran. But in reality, the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, remains the most invisible man since his appointment in early March. If no one has seen or heard him, it is because he is severely injured according to the New York Times, which confirms the rumors about his health. Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the strike that killed his father in Tehran, Iran, on the first day of the war. “He has serious injuries to one leg. He has undergone several operations. He is at risk of amputation. His face and lips were severely burned, making his speech difficult. But all my sources tell me that his mental faculties are intact“, reports Farnaz Fassihi, a journalist at the New York Times.
So, does the Supreme Leader really have the ability to govern and lead the war? According to the New York Times, not only is he weakened, but out of fear of being eliminated himself, he lives in hiding, without access to telephone or internet. He participates in decisions in an old-fashioned way, by mail, with messengers, by car or motorcycle. Nothing like the absolute power his father wielded. A guide relegated to a symbolic role.
Those who actually run Iran today are the powerful generals of the Revolutionary Guards. “We are no longer in the Islamic Republic of the mullahs. There are no turbans. They are bureaucrats, the military, meaning the Revolutionary Guards. The problem is that this change has indeed led to a radicalization, a form of military-Islamic junta”, analyzes David Rigoulet-Roze, a researcher at the French Institute for Strategic Analysis.
A marginalized Supreme Leader, and power in the hands of hardliners. Iran is far from the hopes of openness expressed by the majority of the population before the war launched by the United States and Israel.
