Revealed: Iranian President Met Mojtaba Khamenei Last Month

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently held a meeting with the country’s Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei. The meeting took place at the end of July, just before the start of the third year of Pezeshkian’s term. The latest meeting between the two Iranian leaders was reported by state media on Sunday. According to the state media report, the late July meeting between Pezeshkian and Mojtaba discussed military and economic issues, including the military conflict with the United States and the people’s livelihood needs. The meeting also covered securing resources, managing foreign exchange, energy use, and economic relations with Iran’s foreign partners. In recent weeks, Pezeshkian has given differing accounts regarding his access to meet directly with Mojtaba. Since being selected to replace his late father, Ali Khamenei, as Supreme Leader in early March, Mojtaba has not appeared in public at all. He has communicated mostly through written statements. Pezeshkian said on 21 July that interactions with Mojtaba were ‘increasing day by day’. However, in early August, he stated that communication with the Supreme Leader was ‘very difficult at this time’. In May, state media also reported that Pezeshkian had held a meeting with Mojtaba lasting several hours. That meeting was reported as the first published encounter between the two since Mojtaba assumed the role of Supreme Leader. Mojtaba was reported to have been seriously injured in a joint US-Israeli attack when the war began on 28 February. However, his exact condition has never been detailed by Tehran. The same attack killed his father and several other members of the Khamenei family. Mojtaba’s absence from the public eye, especially amid the war against the US and Israel, has sparked speculation about his relationship with other senior Iranian officials. He also did not attend his father’s large-scale funeral procession last month. Separately, Iranian authorities released a rare video showing Mojtaba Khamenei following a spate of reports that his health had deteriorated and his condition was critical. The video, released by the Mehr News Agency, appeared to show Mojtaba surrounded by several people and speaking to them. No specific details were given about when or where the video was recorded, nor did the agency identify the people around Mojtaba.