Iran claims president had rare meeting with supreme leader

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, Khamenei’s office says.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not made any public appearances since he became supreme leader, and no recordings of him speaking have been aired — only written statements attributed to him by state media. He was reportedly injured and possibly deformed in some manner during the attack that killed his father at the start of the war, and has remained in hiding, reportedly communicating with other senior regime figures via a slow array of intermediaries to avoid being targeted.

“Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency,” the supreme leader’s office says in a statement, without indicating the date of the meeting.

Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, had said in early May that he met with Khamenei, also without specifying the date, but the supreme leader’s office did not issue any statements at the time. The president had said on Wednesday that communication with Khamenei was “very difficult at the moment,” and speculation has swirled about the supreme leader’s health after he was reportedly wounded in strikes that killed his father.

Khamenei’s office says the two “discussed in detail the country’s issues and problems,” including the “current military situation and future prospects.”

On Sunday, Tasnim news agency cited a general in the Revolutionary Guards as saying that images showing Khamenei among the people and during meetings would be “published in the future,” without offering a timeline.