Tehran: Has a severely injured Mojtaba Khamenei delegated powers to a group of hardliners, resulting in the ongoing stalemate and closure of the Strait of Hormuz?
The New Indian Express has referred to an extensive report by The New York Times that claims Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader is currently governing from an undisclosed hideout while struggling to recover from catastrophic injuries sustained in a joint US-Israeli airstrike.
Quoting six senior Iranian officials, Revolutionary Guard members, and individuals close to the leadership, the report suggests that the younger Khamenei is physically incapacitated and increasingly dependent on a circle of hard-line military generals who have effectively seized control of the state’s decision-making apparatus.
On February 28, the US and Israel bombed the compound in which Iran’s former supreme leader and Mojtaba’s father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was present. The strike killed Mojtaba’s father, his wife and son, while severely injuring him.
Ever since Mojtaba succeeded his father as the country’s supreme leader, he has remained in deep hiding, the report claims. He is said to be surrounded by a dedicated team of medical staff, including Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian, who is a heart surgeon.
The new supreme leader is said to have suffered severe burns to his face and lips, making it nearly impossible for him to speak or record public video addresses. Mojtaba has reportedly undergone three surgeries on one leg and is awaiting a prosthetic, while also undergoing rehabilitation for a hand injury.
The 56-year-old remains mentally sharp, but his physical isolation is absolute, sources have been quoted as saying. Senior commanders and government officials reportedly avoid visiting him in person, fearing detection by Israeli intelligence.
A secretive human chain allegedly conducts communication, where handwritten, sealed envelopes are ferried by couriers on motorcycles and cars via back roads to reach his hideout. This physical distance has resulted in a significant shift in power, with the supreme leader reportedly delegating primary authority to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The NYT report describes this as the rise of a “General’s Republic,” where the traditional influence of the clerical class is waning in favor of an entrenched military elite. The investigation highlights that Mojtaba’s reliance on the military is rooted in his personal history as a teenage volunteer in the “Habib Battalion” during the Iran-Iraq War.
His former peers from that unit now occupy the highest rungs of Iranian power, including parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and IRGC commander-in-chief Brig Gen Ahmad Vahidi. These figures now operate as the dominant force in Tehran, reportedly viewing the new supreme leader more as a peer than a superior, NYT reported.
The consequences of this military-dominated structure are already visible on the global stage. While the elected president and foreign minister have attempted to prioritize economic recovery, the generals have repeatedly sidelined them, the report says.
The military faction reportedly “pulled the plug” on high-level negotiations with the United States in Islamabad recently, despite the USD 300 billion economic loss the country has suffered. The generals successfully argued that continued American blockades made diplomacy futile, overrunning more moderate calls for negotiation.
While Mojtaba holds the title of supreme leader, he is currently “subservient” to the IRGC which ensured his succession, it has been reported.
Even as Mojtaba awaits plastic surgery and the restoration of his speech, the governance of Iran has moved from the hands of a singular religious figure into a collective military leadership.
For now, the “triangle of power” led by veteran generals continues to dictate the survival strategy of the Islamic Republic, managing the state’s affairs while the new leader remains a wounded figure in the shadows, the report claims.
