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US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth Pete Hegseth has told a press conference that Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is wounded and “likely disfigured”.
No images have been released of Khamenei since the Israeli strike at the start of the war that killed much of his family, including his father and wife. His first comments came in a statement read out by a television presenter on Thursday. In the statement, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighbouring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
“We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth told a Pentagon briefing.
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father – dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy.”
An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that the newly appointed supreme leader was lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.
Reuters with Josefine Ganko
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