Name: Iran war: Why new leader Moshtaba Khamenei's speech raises questions | DW News
Uploaded: 2026-03-12T23:04:48.000Z
Duration: 13 min 45 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of manner

Iranian state TV has aired what it called the first address from Iran's newly appointed Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Moshtavi Khamenei.

Basic passive voice

But the broadcast has raised questions about whether he's actually the author of the message and what his condition might be after he was injured in US And Israeli attacks that killed his father.

As previous supreme leader, the son of Ali Khamenei does not appear on camera.

The message vowing revenge for Iranian deaths and a lasting cutoff of Gulf oil supplies was read by a TV presenter.

Well, for more on this statement, we can speak now with Dr. Rowena Binti Abdul Rasak.

She's a lecturer in London specializing in Middle East Northern history.

Rowena, what do you make of the statement from Iran's new supreme Leader?

It's quite an interesting statement, especially from someone we cannot see and we cannot hear.

It's a very strong statement and in many ways very much symbolic of the new hardline government that seems to be in place and that seems to be taking, you know, seems to be taken that much represents.

So even though he is not present, it is very much a statement that would have come from the more hardline elements in the government.

He has very strong links with the IRGC and the IRGC as well as the assembly of Experts who are filled with more conservative and strong handed members of the government, probably are behind, behind this statement.

So even though he himself didn't deliver it, it's more of a symbolic delivery of the system and the government that's in charge at the mom under Khamenei, I mean, Khamenei Jr.

Now, can we be sure that the statement really is from Mojtabah Khamenei?

He hasn't been seen since the war started and there is speculation that he's maybe in a coma or possibly even dead.

He, to begin with, Mojtaba was quite an enigmatic figure to begin with.

He never held public office, so he was not someone who was in the public eye anyway.

He was quite, you know, a mysterious figure.

Although we do know that he held a lot of power behind the scenes.

He was very much the gatekeeper to his father's, to his, to his, to the, to the, to his father back then when the father was alive.

He also had very strong links with the IRGC and the Basij.

So we know that he was very much a behind the scenes person.

And even if the statement didn't come from him directly.

It seems to be quite, quite in line with how he was doing things anyway, very much behind the scenes, which in this context seems very strange because, you know, the Supreme Leader is very much a public figure and needs to be seen.

It's very hard to say whether the statement came from him directly, but I reckon that, and

I believe that the statement was actually a collective effort, not just from him, but

from the more hardline elements in the government, as I said, like the IRGC and so on.

There are lots of rumors of whether he's actually even alive, whether he's in a coma, how injured he is and so on.

And the fact that he hasn't been produced on TV speaks to the fact that either he is incapacitated in some way or that they are very worried because there were lots of threats against his life.

And the US has said that he was not Trump's choice.

Israel has said that they would kill any Supreme Leader that comes to power.

So I think there is also a security element to him, him not appearing, but

it doesn't breed much confidence among the government and its people.

What sort of reaction are you seeing so far from Iranians to this?

It's a disappointing appointment in many ways.

He represents a dynasty, which is ironic because there's a lot of.

There were, there were a lot of calls for the monarchy to return, Reza Pahlavi to return.

And yet here now, we have a clerical dynasty in charge in Iran.

So it's kind of a disappointment to many.

It's very hard to say what Iranians in Iran are really feeling.

I mean, there were lots of state television videos showing, you know, the support that Mujtaba has.

But at the same time now with the blackout on the Internet in Iran, it's very hard to know exactly the truth, you know, to know exactly how people are feeling.

Iranians at the moment are very displaced in Iran.

The United nations reckons about 3.2 million people are displaced in Iran.

And I'm sure that a lot of people just want the war to be over.

And at the moment, Mojtaba is not, not promising that.

So I'm sure there's a lot of worry and concern that the war under him might, might just continue.

The diaspora, of course, are not happy with his appointment because he continues in that hard line streak as his father.

So a lot of people won't be necessarily happy with the direction that Iran seems to be going, more isolated, continuing in the hard line manner, not just in terms of the war, but

we haven't seen the new Supreme Leader ourselves or heard his voice.

Can we still assume that the chain of command from the Supreme Leader on down is still intact?

Or could parts of the Revolutionary Guard, the irgc, be operating pretty much on their own?

The irgc, they have a new commander, Ahmad Vaghidi, who was the former Minister of Defence and he is known to be also very strong handed, not just abroad but also in the country.

He used quite a lot of force against protesters, for example.

And the IRGC in a way kind of acts on its own accord, as we can see.

You know, we have statements from the President, Pezesh Kyan, who is trying to calm the situation, he's trying to calm down the Gulf neighbors, especially to say that, you know, this is not against them.

They've threatened to continue to hit at US bases and so on.

So in terms of statements, you know, they continue in this very hard line, but

at the same time, the chain of command has taken quite a hit.

Lots of the military men have been killed.

The Minister of Defense, just one day after his appointment was also killed.

At the moment, I don't believe that Iran even has a minister of Defense.

So the command structure is a little bit broken in some ways.

But we do have strong leadership from Mojtabh, if he is alive in the background, and

also the IRGC with Ahmad Vahidi who is still in the background, and so on.

So I think even though the chain of command is broken, the top echelons of power is still intact.

We still have the precedent, we still have the assembly of Experts, we still have the Guardian Council.

So they are continuing, you know, continuing behind the scenes.

But I will say that we are seeing kind of two strands emerging.

One more moderate, calling for, you know, negotiations, calling for, to make sure that, you know, that relations with the Gulf states are not broken and another hand that still wants to continue the conflict.

Rowena, thank you very much for speaking with us today.

That was Rowena Binti Abdul Razak, lecturer in the history of the Middle east and Africa in London.

For more on Iran's leadership change, we can now speak with Simon Mabon.

He's a professor of international politics at Lancaster University in the uk.

Simon, what do you make of that first statement?

That's attributed to Iran's new supreme leader?

One, it tells us that there is a very clear message that this is business as usual from the regime.

And it tells us that the regime is trying to project this narrative that it is Ayatollah Mojtab Al Khamenei who is the supreme leader.

But it also raises questions because it is not the supreme leader who is reading this message, ostensibly his own message.

It does raise the question about what condition is he in?

at the same time, it does send that narrative, that message of defiance to Israel, to the United States, and

to other powers in world politics, that Iran is still going to continue on its trajectory.

So Khamenei the Younger has not been seen since the war started, and

there's speculation that he's in a coma or maybe no longer alive.

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Iran war: Why new leader Moshtaba Khamenei's speech raises questions | DW News

figure

strategy

situation

structure