…vows to keep Strait of Hormuz closed
Mojtaba Khamenei has lost at least one leg and has also suffered serious stomach or liver damage after being seriously injured in air strikes.
According to the UK Sun and Daily Mail, the new leader is currently under intensive care at the Sina University Hospital in the city’s historic quarter. Security forces have supposedly sealed off a section of the building.
A source, who does not want to be named out of fear for his life, said the new Supreme Leader is under the care of Mohammad Reza Zafargjani, Iran’s Minister of Health, Treatment, and Medical Education, and one of the country’s top trauma surgeons.
Mr. Zafargjani’s Persian Wikipedia page details eight years of experience operating in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s. The regime’s most trusted doctor was also injured by chemical weapons himself in the war.
He is believed to be assisted by another senior surgeon, Dr. Mohammad Marashi, the brother of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani’s wife and a trusted figure in the Islamic regime.
The wounded Supreme Leader is also reported to have received a visit from the current Iranian President, Masoud Pezeshkian, two days ago. The president is believed to be being fully briefed on Khamenei’s condition.
The source told the Sun through secret messages sent to an exiled dissident based in London: ‘One or two of his legs have been cut off. His liver or stomach has also ruptured. He is apparently in a coma as well.’
While the new Supreme Leader has also not been seen for weeks, Iran is being run by regional commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who are believed to be under orders to fight on indefinitely.
Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader has said the Strait of Hormuz, a critical artery for global oil and commodity trade with Gulf countries will “remain closed” in his first public statement since succeeding his father who was killed at the start of the war between the United States, Israel and Iran.
In official statements distributed by the country’s local media, Khamenei also warned that Iran would continue on the offensive against US bases and allies in the Gulf and swore to “avenge the blood of Iranians.”
Two tankers were set ablaze in Iraqi waters, in an escalation of Iranian attacks that have cut off Middle East energy supplies, defying US President Donald Trump’s claim to have already won the war.
Visual content, reported by foreign media as having been filmed from the shore of the port of Basra, showed ships on fire. Iraqi authorities said the vessels had been attacked overnight by Iranian boats laden with explosives. At least one crew member was killed.
Roughly 20 percent of the world’s total oil and global Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) pass through the Strait of Hormuz. After the fresh attacks, oil prices jumped due to reignited fears of longer disruption. Brent crude rose past $100 a barrel before settling a little under triple digits.
Ongoing strikes and failed assurances have forced shipping giants such as Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC), Hapag-Lloyd, and Maersk to suspend bookings to and from major Gulf ports, including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Jordan.
Shipping lines have imposed extraordinary surcharges and suspended operations at these ports, forcing Nigerian exporters to use more costly and time-consuming shipping routes or risk forfeiting their shipments altogether, robbing Nigeria of crucial foreign exchange earnings
