Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is “wounded and likely disfigured,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, questioning Khamenei’s ability to lead after nearly two weeks of US and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Mr Hegseth’s comments come as President Donald Trump said the US was going to be hitting Iran “very hard over the next week”, shortly after temporarily lifting sanctions on Russian oil in an attempt to contain energy prices amid the war.
Khamenei has not been seen by Iranians since his selection on Sunday by a clerical assembly, and his first comments came in a statement read out by a television presenter on Thursday.
In them, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighbouring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.
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“We know the new so-called not so supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured. He put out a statement yesterday. A weak one, actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Mr Hegseth told a briefing on Friday.
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father — dead. He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run and he lacks legitimacy.”
Mojtaba Khamenei made his first public comments since being appointed Iran’s supreme leader in a statement on Thursday.
(Reuters: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA/file photo)
An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that the newly appointed supreme leader was lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.
Mr Hegseth was joined by General Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a briefing in which they emphasised US military strikes to knock out Iran’s missile and drone capabilities and its navy.
But despite the US attacks on Iran, more Iranian drones were reported flying into Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, Bahrain and Oman.
US temporarily lifts sanctions on Russian oil
Oil prices have been whipsawing on Mr Trump’s comments about the likely duration of the war, which has prompted Iran to attack vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for a fifth of the world’s oil.
Mr Trump has previously said the war is “complete”, and also promised to guarantee the safety of vessels in the Strait. In a Fox News interview aired on Friday, Trump said the US would escort shipping there “if we needed to”.
“But, you know, hopefully things are going to go very well. We’re going to see what happens.” He gave no other details.
“We’re going to be hitting them very hard over the next week,” Mr Trump added in the interview with Fox News Radio.
A man walks along the shore as oil tankers and cargo ships line up in the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Khor Fakkan, United Arab Emirates. (AP: Altaf Qadri (file))
The US administration on Thursday issued a 30-day licence for countries to buy Russian oil and petroleum products currently at sea — where it is not uncommon for consignments to be sold or change their buyer.
The 32-nation International Energy Agency said on Thursday that the war was creating the biggest oil supply disruption in history.
Mr Trump said the US stood to profit from higher oil prices.
“The United States is the largest oil producer in the world, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” he said on social media on Thursday, adding that the priority was to prevent Iran acquiring nuclear weapons.
Also casting the disruption in a positive light, his treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, called the rise in oil prices a “temporary disruption that will result in a massive benefit to our nation and economy in the long term”.
War extends across Middle East
After nearly two weeks of war, 2,000 people have been killed, most of them in Iran, but many also in Lebanon and a growing number in the Gulf, which has for the first time in decades of Middle East conflicts found itself on the front line.
US forces have also suffered casualties. The US military confirmed on Friday that all six crew members aboard a refuelling aircraft that crashed in western Iraq were killed.
Iran fired more missiles and drones at Israel, while the Israeli military launched strikes across Tehran and continued to attack the Iranian-allied Hezbollah militia across Lebanon and in the capital Beirut.
Rescue workers search for survivors in the rubble after a strike in southern Tehran, Iran. (AP: Sajjad Safari)
Iranian Press TV said a woman had been killed by an air strike close to a rally in Tehran for al-Quds Day (Jerusalem Day).
Al-Quds Day is an annual protest held in Iran to show solidarity with Palestinians and demonstrate opposition to Israel’s control over Jerusalem.
Iranian media said President Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had attended the rally, in a gesture of defiance.
Israel’s military said its air force had struck more than 200 targets in western and central Iran over the past day, including ballistic missile launchers, air defence systems and weapons production sites.
Trump says US ‘totally destroying’ Iran regime
In a post on social media, Mr Trump said the US was “totally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran”.
“We have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time — Watch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,” Mr Trump said.
“They’ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!”
The news outlet Axios cited three officials from the Western Group of Seven powers as saying Mr Trump had told G7 leaders in a virtual meeting on Wednesday that Iran was “about to surrender”.
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President Emmanuel Macron said one French soldier had been killed and several wounded during an attack in northern Iraq, hours after an Italian base in the same area was attacked.
The French soldiers were providing training as part of an international coalition fighting Islamic State militants.
Several homes in a Bedouin Arab town near an air base in northern Israel were heavily damaged overnight.
It was not clear whether there had been a direct strike or falling debris from an interception. The injuries were mostly minor.
With Reuters
