US president Donald Trump has described the alleged death of Iran’s supreme leader as “a rumour,” while noting that Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since the start of the conflict.
On Thursday, Khamenei addressed the nation for the first time since being named new supreme leader on March 8, but his speech was read by a presenter on national television.
“I don’t even know if he’s alive. So far, nobody has been able to prove it,” Trump said on Saturday during a phone interview with NBC. According to reports from various sources close to the regime, the 56-year-old cleric was wounded in the same strike that killed his father, Ali Khamenei, on February 28 — the first day of bombardments in Tehran. Trump insisted he had heard that the new supreme leader “is not alive,” but added that “if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, which is to surrender.”
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on Friday that Khamenei was wounded during the US-Israeli air offensive and was probably disfigured. Despite this, Trump dismissed reports of the cleric’s death as “a rumour.”
On Saturday, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi said there is “no problem whatsoever” with Mojtaba Khamenei and that the supreme leader “is fulfilling his duties in accordance with the Constitution.”
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On Friday, the United States announced a $10 million (€8.7 million) reward for information on the whereabouts of senior Iranian officials.
In the same interview, Trump indicated the US may strike Kharg Island again — the centre of Iran’s oil industry, which he said had been the target of “one of the most powerful bombardments” in Middle East history. “Maybe” they will bomb it “a few more times, just for fun,” the US president said.
Trump also said he is not willing to reach a deal with Tehran. “Iran wants to make a deal and I don’t want to because the terms are not good enough yet,” he said, adding that any agreement would need to be “very solid” and would have to include a commitment from Iran to abandon any ambition to develop nuclear weapons.
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On the Strait of Hormuz, through which one fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, Trump said it was unclear whether Iran had laid mines in the area and guaranteed that “an extensive cleanup effort” would be carried out, adding that he believed other countries facing difficulties obtaining oil would join the effort.
