The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Monday that the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Jamenei, could be "severely injured" or even "dead," claiming that no one has seen him publicly and that there are conflicting reports about his condition amid the war.
“No one claims that he is one hundred percent healthy,” he declared from the White House, after raising doubts about who really holds power in Tehran.
In his statements, Trump maintained that Iran is negotiating with the United States to end the conflict, although he dismissed the possibility of reaching an immediate agreement.
According to him, Washington is in talks with the Iranian side, but he believes that Tehran may not yet be in a position to reach an agreement.
"They are negotiating, and we always talk (...). I talk to everyone, because sometimes that leads to results," noted.
He then added that Iran may "not be ready yet" to reach an understanding because, in his words, "they are taking a beating."
Trump linked that difficulty in negotiating to the uncertainty surrounding Iranian leadership.
"Not even their leaders are known," he stated, before asserting that the Iranian leadership would have been annihilated in the American bombings.
"All their leaders are dead, as far as we know. But they are all dead. We do not know who we are dealing with," he stated, attributing the elimination of the Iranian political-military leadership in the waves of attacks against the Islamic Republic to Washington.
It was in that context that the leader emphasized the possibility that Mojtaba Jamenei may be incapacitated.
Rumors?
Trump stated that there are reports suggesting that the Iranian leader could be "severely disfigured," have lost a leg, or be seriously injured.
He also said that other people claim he might already be dead. "Many people are saying he is severely disfigured. They say he lost a leg, one of them, and that he has been very seriously injured. Others say that he is dead," he stated.
The absence of recent public images of the leader was one of the elements on which Trump based his speculations.
The U.S. president emphasized that the new Iranian supreme leader has not been seen and deemed that situation "very unusual."
"We haven't seen this one at all. So that could be due to many different reasons," he stated.
This weekend, Trump himself considered the death of Iran's supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, to be "a rumor," although he indicated to NBC that "no one" has been able to prove he is alive.
Trump insisted that he has heard that Jameneí, son of the late Ali Jameneí, "is not alive," but later noted that "if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that is to surrender," according to the agency EFE.
Filed under: