By The Daily Wire (World News) | Created at 2026-08-10 18:21:09 | Updated at 2026-08-10 19:39:57
6 hours ago
Iran’s Mehr News Agency released a short video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei over the weekend, claiming it was new. The undated clip was immediately fact-checked as older footage from months ago.
Iranian state media coverage framed the video as a first public look after months without new images and described the Mehr video as the first release of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei. That claim was met with immediate scrutiny.
“By ‘FIRST TIME’, I think you actually mean March 20th, 2026,” an X post read. He pointed to a March post from Iran’s state broadcaster, IRIB, which had already published a video of religious science teaching by Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei.
Ariel Oseran, Senior Middle East Correspondent for i24NEWS, issued a similar criticism. He wrote:
“Iran’s Mehr News released a video claiming to show Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei ‘for the first time,’ with no date or location specified. The right side of his face cannot be seen in the footage.” He later added that he had been informed that “this is an old video.”
Other comments circulating alongside those posts treated the clip as previously seen material. One said “It’s old footage. Another reason to believe he’s dead.” Another wrote, “He is being kept ‘alive’ in press and politically by IRGC so their coup is legitimized.”
The Jerusalem Post reported that media outlets covering the release noted the clip bears striking similarities to another video released earlier in the year. Khamenei has not made a public appearance since the start of the war and the assassination of his father, former supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He assumed the role in March after the February 28 strike that killed Ali Khamenei. The same reporting stated that the younger Khamenei was reportedly seriously injured in that strike and that he had generally kept a low public profile before becoming supreme leader.
State media said on Sunday that Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met Khamenei around the start of the president’s third year in office in late July. That meeting covered military affairs and the economy, including securing resources, managing foreign exchange and energy use as well as economic ties with foreign partners, according to state media.
Pezeshkian has given differing accounts in recent weeks regarding his access to Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since he succeeded his father in the role in March. On July 21, the president said interactions with the supreme leader were “increasing day by day,” but in early August he said communicating with Khamenei was “very difficult.”
In May, state media also reported that Pezeshkian had met Khamenei for several hours in what was then the first publicly reported meeting between the two since Khamenei became supreme leader.
Basij Organization deputy Qasem Qoraishi said on Sunday that footage and other documentation would be released showing Khamenei among the public, out in the streets as well as in meetings with armed forces commanders.
Qoraishi said the footage would “once again bring disgrace upon the enemies and detractors of the Iranian people.” The comments appeared aimed at countering speculation about Khamenei’s health and lack of public appearances.
The latest video release comes amid persistent questions about Mojtaba Khamenei’s physical condition and whereabouts. A report published days earlier by Iran International described an unusual encounter in which Pezeshkian was reportedly taken to a secret location in Tehran and allowed only a brief meeting in complete darkness with a man he was told was the supreme leader.
The interior was kept so dark that neither man could see the other, and Pezeshkian was not permitted to shake the supposed Khamenei’s hand, according to the report. After only a few minutes, he was instructed to leave. The outlet reported that afterward the president questioned whether the person sitting beside him was actually Mojtaba Khamenei, as he had only heard a voice in the darkness.
