Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ‘Pulled From Rubble’ After Tehran Hospital Strike

File photo of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. Reports about his condition following the February attacks remain subject to conflicting accounts. Photo credit: Mostafa Tehrani/ Wikimedia commons.

 TEHRAN – Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was reportedly pulled from the rubble of a Tehran hospital after the facility was struck during the February attacks, according to a senior Iranian cleric.

Mohsen Heydari, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, made the claim during an interview with Qatar-based television network Al Araby. His account has added a new detail to the conflicting reports surrounding Mojtaba Khamenei’s injuries and whereabouts.

According to Heydari, Mojtaba Khamenei had already been injured and taken to a hospital following the initial attacks. He said that three hospitals in Tehran were subsequently hit, with Khamenei inside the third facility.

Heydari said Mojtaba Khamenei was eventually pulled from the rubble after the hospital was struck. The account was subsequently reported by several international news outlets, citing the cleric’s interview.

Mojtaba’s father, former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed. Mojtaba was later selected as Iran’s new Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei has remained largely out of public view since the February attacks. His absence has generated competing accounts about the extent of his injuries and his current health.

US President Donald Trump has previously said he believed Mojtaba Khamenei was alive but had suffered serious injuries. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, however, has given a different account, saying he had met Khamenei for several hours and describing him as healthy.

The latest statement from Heydari therefore adds to an already disputed picture. There has been no independent confirmation in the reports reviewed that Mojtaba Khamenei was actually rescued from the rubble as described by Heydari. The information should consequently be treated as a claim attributed to the Iranian cleric rather than an independently established fact.

Heydari also discussed the process through which Mojtaba Khamenei was selected as Iran’s Supreme Leader. He said Khamenei received 50 of the 59 votes cast by the Assembly of Experts, with eight votes going to Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and one member abstaining.

The new account is likely to attract further attention because of the continued uncertainty surrounding the Iranian leader’s health and his limited public appearances since taking office.

For now, the reported rescue from the hospital rubble remains an account from an Iranian Assembly of Experts member and has not been independently confirmed.