Mojtaba Khamenei survived being pulled from the rubble of a Tehran medical center on February 28 after US and Israeli strikes hit three hospitals in the capital, according to an Iranian cleric detailing the succession of the nation’s new supreme leader.
The sequence of attacks unfolded as a widening regional conflict targeted Iran’s leadership structure. Following initial strikes that leveled the Tehran compound of late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and killed dozens of top officials, military operations extended to medical facilities across the city on February 28, according to the reporting.
Hospital Bombings and the Second Close Call for Mojtaba Khamenei
Mojtaba Khamenei had already been wounded in the initial operations that killed his 86-year-old father on 28 February. Transferred to a Tehran hospital for treatment, he faced direct danger once again when allied forces struck three separate medical centers in the capital that same day.
Mohsen Heydari, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, disclosed the details during an interview with Qatari television network Al Araby. Heydari stated that the 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble before vanishing to an undisclosed location, and has not been seen in public or his voice heard since. Even after he had been wounded and taken to the hospital, three hospitals in Tehran were bombed,
Heydari said. Mojtaba Khamenei was in the third hospital and was pulled from the rubble.
Secret Balloting and Elevation by the Assembly of Experts
The Assembly of Experts, which is tasked with selecting Iran’s next supreme leader, encountered its own security challenges when a bombing at its Qom Secretariat killed eight individuals and destroyed recommendations and reports regarding a new supreme leader. To circumvent the security breach, a week after the initial strikes, members recorded their votes on paper and were then called to a secret room without prior notice regarding the meeting’s purpose or location. Heidari was the first to propose Khamenei’s name during the session, disregarding a warning from President Trump that Iran should not select the son of the late Khamenei, who was said to be an even greater hardliner than his father. Given the enemy’s position, we will choose and elect no one as leader and supreme guide of the Islamic Republic except Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei,
Heidari recalled saying. We obtained information that Mojtaba Khamenei was healthy and able to lead, and we determined that he met the requirements of religious qualification, justice and competence to manage the country,
he told the outlet.
During the session, Khamenei garnered 50 of 59 votes, while eight members voted for Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and one abstained. In the Qatari interview, Heidari described Khamenei as a man of the shadows
— he had reportedly acted as an adviser to his father but had never held an official political post in the Iranian state before becoming supreme leader. According to Heydari, the younger Khamenei was seemingly unaware that he had been selected as the new supreme leader on March 8 until the news was aired on state TV, though he was then religiously and legally bound to accept the position.
Conflicting Accounts Surround the New Leader’s Condition
Months of speculation regarding Khamenei’s health and whereabouts have produced sharply divergent claims from international and domestic officials. US intelligence reports have suggested he was badly disfigured in the attacks. President Trump remarked last month that the younger Khamenei was very seriously wounded with injuries affecting the left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing, though adding, I don’t think he’s dead.
Conversely, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian claimed the out-of-sight supreme leader was completely healthy in an interview on Fox News while in New York City for the UN General Assembly. We met for about seven hours,
the Iranian president told “Special Report” host Bret Baier of a meeting between the two.
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