Iran’s new Supreme Leader has ordered his nation to weaponise the Strait of Hormuz in his first statement, amid claims he is ‘in a coma’ and has lost a leg after being seriously injured in air strikes. 

A written statement attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was read out by a news anchor on state TV this afternoon. He himself did not appear on national TV.

He added in the written statement that Iran would not refrain from avenging the ‘blood of its martyrs.’

Mojtaba, who took over as leader from his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his assassination on February 28, added that while he believes in maintaining a friendship with Iran’s Gulf neighbours, attacks on US bases in the region will continues. 

The newly declared Ayatollah added that Iran needed to improve relations with its neighbours.  

He called for all American bases in the region to be immediately closed: ‘The existence of the US bases in [Iran’s neighbours] and usage of those bases to attack Iran is not benefiting the region and they must be closed.’

He also said Iran will seek compensation from its enemies or destroy their assets accordingly, and offered financial compensation to those in Iran who have been hurt by the outbreak of violence.

The Iranian leader hinted at Iran’s proxies in the region supporting the nation, claiming that armed groups in Iraq ‘want to help’ his nation, while those in Yemen ‘will also do the job.’ 

He also spoke of the loss of many members of his family during the US-Israeli airstrike that killed his father: ‘I lost my father, I lost my wife. My sister lost her child as well as the husband who has been martyred.

‘But what it makes it easier for us to endure all these plights is to trust the grace of God and to know that patience is going to resolve it.’ 

Despite the release of the statement, Mojtaba is said to be in intensive care at the Sina University Hospital in the city’s historic quarter surrounded by security officials, according to a source in Tehran. A section of the hospital has been sealed off to guard Iran’s Supreme Leader. 

It is unclear whether Mojtaba was injured in the same air strikes which killed his 86-year-old father. 

Serious questions over who is in charge of Iran linger over the nation as it continues to duke it out with the US, Israel and its Gulf neighbours.  

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 Zafarghandi, Iran’s Minister of Health, Treatment and Medical Education and one of the country’s top trauma surgeons. 

Mr Zafarghandi’s Persian Wikipedia page details eight years’ 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 – even without a leader.

It is impossible to verify the condition of Iran’s new Supreme Leader due to the regime’s current internet blackout, but Iranian state TV have referred to Mojtaba as ‘Jaanbaz of Ramadan’ – meaning ‘wounded war veteran’. 

Many believe the regime is being run by a ‘Ghost Ayatollah’, as the rogue state continues hitting neighbouring Gulf nations and sending oil and gas prices soaring. 

It comes as another source, a former study partner of Mojtaba, revealed that the new Supreme Leader is said to be ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and is ‘more dangerous’ than his father. 

Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly unafraid of ‘killing thousands’ and will ‘try and control the region’ if war breaks out, exiled official Jaber Rajabi has revealed. 

Rajabi, a former foreign policy advisor to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who has lived in exile in the UAE since 2021, studied at a ‘religious seminary’ with Mojtaba Khamenei in Qom. 

He has spoken out to warn that Iran’s new Supreme Leader is more ruthless than his father and a ‘better liar’. 

Rajabi told the Jerusalem Post: ‘Mojtaba will not, from the first day in power, claim to want to take Al-Quds (Jerusalem).

‘He is opposite to his father, who gets angry, and it is visible… Mojtaba can lie in a much better way and knows how to play.’

While studying with Mojtaba at The Qom Seminary – the most highly regarded centre for Islamic scholarship in Iran – Rajabi described him as ‘obsessed with the end of days’ and that he believed ‘he himself will have a special part in hastening humanity down that path’. 

According to Twelver Shia – the largest branch of Shia Islam studied by Khamenei at Qom – the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed to be in hiding, will return at the end of times to establish a period of global justice in which oppression is eradicated. 

Islamic apocalyptic traditions describe major conflicts happening before this era, including the Malhama al-Kubra – a great battle sometimes interpreted as a confrontation with Western powers.  

Rajabi said: ‘I remember Khamenei spoke in Hawza studies (and) said the nuclear issue and the soldiers are his heritage. Mojtaba’s ambitions will not be impacted by airstrikes. 

‘There are other matters I can’t mention… They need the nuclear issue as a protection for their regime and their hegemony in the region.’ 

Rajabi added that Khamenei had a disregard for human life, saying: ‘If he can kill 13,000 of his own people, then he has no problem killing 100,000 in Tel Aviv, because if you don’t care about the lives of your own people, why would you care about the lives of others in Tel Aviv?’  

The comments come as Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly in hospital in a coma with serious injuries. 

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, who has not been seen in public or pictured since taking over from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday, is believed to have been injured in the attack on his father’s compound in Tehran on the first day of the war. 

‘He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment,’ Alireza Salarian, Iran’s ambassador to Cyprus, told The Guardian.

‘I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm… I think he is in the hospital because he is injured.’

Mojtaba’s injuries are behind his mysterious absence from the public eye, the ambassador said, adding he also wants to avoid the glare of Israel and the US. 

He said: ‘I don’t think he is comfortable [in any condition] to give a speech.’

Iranian officials have claimed he remains alert and is sheltering at a highly secure location with limited communication. 

Some sources claim Mojtaba, who did not attend his own succession rally, has no idea the war is even happening, or that his wife and son have been killed. 

The ‘vengeful’ hardline cleric was marked for assassination by Israel after it vowed to ‘eliminate’ whoever succeeded the slain Ayatollah, having killed him, Mojtaba’s wife Zahra Haddad-Adel and one of his sons in strikes on Tehran on the first day of the war.

Donald Trump also ramped up his threats against the supreme leader, claiming he won’t be able to ‘live in peace’ and warning Iran to brace for ‘death, fire and fury.’

Mojtaba has never given a public speech since succeeding his father and there is now speculation that he is dead.