Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, included a disturbing threat of attacks on US soil in his first message to the world — but he was clearly either too hurt or too incompetent to deliver it himself, experts said.
In his inaugural address to the people of Iran, Khamenei said the Islamic Republic would “obtain compensation” from its enemies following the joint US-Israeli strikes that killed his father, his wife, and other top leaders.
“If it refuses, we will take from its assets to the extent we deem appropriate, and if that is not possible, we will destroy its assets to the same extent,” he said.
The message was a clear call for Iran’s allies abroad to take revenge, according to Khosro Isfahani, the research director for the Washington-based National Union for Democracy in Iran (NUFDI) think tank.
“It hints at activating terror cells, like the warnings that have come out of Europe and the US, and the reports of preparing strikes on the West Coast,” Isfahani told The Post.
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“These are desperate measures by a collapsing regime that sees no other choice but to escalate.”
Since the war began, law enforcement officials around the world have issued warnings about the possibility of sleeper cell attacks from Tehran’s agents and supporters.
President Trump said Wednesday that he had been briefed on those threats after an alarming FBI alert warned that Iran could deploy drones from a vessel off the California coastline to attack the mainland.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt clarified Thursday that the California alert was “based on one email that was sent to local law enforcement in California about a single, unverified tip.”
Khamenei’s message demonstrated that he would maintain his father’s hardline position against the US and Israel, but the method used to put out the statement suggests it may not have been the supreme leader’s words, Isfahani noted.
“It’s clear that he has not written this himself, or we would have seen him on air or in a recorded message,” he said. “They clearly know he’s not capable of stringing these lines together or even reading them on a teleprompter.”
Various reports have claimed that Khamenei, who has yet to make a public appearance since the war began, was seriously wounded following the initial strike on Feb. 28 that killed his father.
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While some sources claimed that the ayatollah suffered injuries to his leg and face, one Iranian source claimed to The Sun that Khamenei was actually in a coma and undergoing intensive care at the Sina University Hospital in Tehran.
“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,” the source alleged.
Annika Ganzeveld, the Middle East Portfolio Manager for the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute, noted that if the reports were true, Iran’s military leaders are likely shielding Khamenei from the public eye until he can recover, if that is even possible.
“Right now, they want to portray strength, and if he’s injured, they might not want to put him on display,” she said.
Isfahani, who previously described Khamenei as having the “charisma of a boiled potato,” said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps might continue to keep him out of sight to hide not just his reported injuries, but his ineptitude.
“He’s just being used as a puppet for the IRGC’s message to the world,” he said, “and if he’s alive, he’s not even a good enough puppet to be put in front of a camera.”
