Amid reports that Iran’s newly named supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, may have been wounded, a South Korean Middle East specialist suggested he could even be dead.
On March 11, during YTN NewsUP, the host asked Seong Il-gwang, a professor at Sogang University’s Euromena Research Center, about the reported attack on Mojtaba and whether it should be interpreted as a sign of “determined resistance.”
Professor Seong said the episode plays both as a display of defiant resolve and as a public celebration of the appointment. The more significant point, he said, is that Mojtaba has not appeared in public since being selected.
Seong noted that Mojtaba is expected to appear publicly after Ramadan ends next week; if he does not, that would increase the likelihood that he has died.
In his personal assessment, Seong said Mojtaba may already be dead and Iran could be staging a facade of having a newly chosen supreme leader. He suggested the death may not be recent — it could have occurred earlier, possibly in U.S. or Israeli strikes — and that authorities might be concealing it to buy time to manage the leadership transition.
Earlier, on March 9, Iran’s state broadcaster described Mojtaba as a “Ramadan janbaz” (wounded veteran), implying he was injured in combat. The Associated Press also reported that Mojtaba had been injured without offering specifics, lending credence to the injury reports.
Mojtaba has not been seen publicly since his father, Khamenei, and his wife reportedly died in airstrikes, which has heightened concern about his whereabouts.
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