A message attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since being gravely wounded on 28 March, has been broadcast by Iranian state television. The regime's credibility problem is hiding in plain sight.
Mojtaba Khamenei © Mena Today
Iranian state television broadcast a remarkable message Thursday, attributed to Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, declaring that the United States had suffered a "humiliating defeat" two months into the war triggered by the joint Israeli-American offensive against Iran.
There is just one problem. Khamenei has not been seen in public since 28 March. No image, no appearance, no verifiable proof of life. Sources close to the Iranian leadership suggest he was gravely wounded in the strikes. Some go further.
Yet according to Tehran, this same man - unable to show his face to the world - somehow found the strength to craft a polished political statement declaring that "a new chapter opens for the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz."
The message itself is a masterpiece of creative fiction. The United States, which deployed two carrier strike groups, tens of thousands of troops and dozens of combat aircraft to the region, has apparently been humiliated. Iran, whose supreme leader is missing, whose economy Donald Trump describes as being in "a state of collapse," and whose military has been severely degraded, has apparently won.
The regime is not speaking to Washington or Jerusalem. It is speaking to its own population, and hoping they still believe it.
Increasingly, that is a very big ask.
Weeks of conflict have aggravated Iran's dire economic problems, risking calamity after the war, but the Islamic Republic looks able to survive a standoff in the Gulf for now, despite a U.S. blockade that has cut off energy exports.
U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iran on Wednesday to 'get smart soon' and sign a deal, following days of deadlock in efforts to end the conflict and a media report that the U.S. would extend its blockade of Iran's ports.
President Donald Trump said on Tuesday Britain's King Charles did not want Iran to have a nuclear weapon, introducing the fraught subject of the Middle East conflict into comments at a White House state dinner for the visiting royal.
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