00:10First this hour, where is Iran's new Supreme Leader?
00:15Posters depicting Mushtab HaMani and his father Ali have been put up around Tehran today,
00:22but he has not been seen in person nor made any public statements since being appointed
00:28Supreme Leader over the weekend. Iranian officials now also confirming that Mushtab HaMani
00:34was injured in that massive Israeli strike that killed his father. Ellen Gainsford has our report.
00:43His likeness is carried aloft in the streets of Tehran, but since his nomination as Iran's new
00:49Supreme Leader, Mushtab HaMani has not been seen in public, nor has he released any statements
00:55either in writing or on video. Rumors about his well-being have spread after state television
01:01described him as injured, without giving further details.
01:07His eminence, Ayatollah Mushtab HaMani, today is the heir to the blood of his martyred father.
01:12He, who is a wounded veteran of the Ramadan war, is the inheritor of the path of the proud
01:17and steadfast martyrs of this land, and also the heir to the great sages of the land of Iran.
01:26Information coming out of Iran is scarce. This Wednesday, the New York Times quoted Iranian
01:32officials discussing injuries to Mushtab HaMani's legs, saying that he was hurt in the first day
01:38of the war, in the same attack that killed his father, his wife, and his mother. But in a post
01:44on Telegram, the president's son appears to play down these claims.
01:48I heard news that Mr. Mushtab HaMani had been injured. I have asked some friends who had
01:53connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound.
01:58HaMani's appointment to succeed his father is seen as a continuation of hardline ideology
02:03in the country.
02:04The selection of His Excellency Ayatollah Mushtab HaMani means that the general policies
02:10of the system, the same policies that have been pursued, will continue, and we will move
02:14forward along the path of Iran's strength.
02:18HaMani is likely keeping quiet for his own safety, as any form of communication could
02:23reveal information as to his whereabouts, putting him at risk of US and Israeli attacks.
02:32To talk a little more about the new supreme leader, I'm joined live now on the programme
02:37by Anahita Mottazed-Rad from the London School of Economics. Thank you very much for talking
02:43to us today here on France 24.
02:48Thank you. Good afternoon. And thank you for having me.
02:51Yes, good afternoon. And look, we saw in that report then, Mushtab HaMani not seen in public,
02:58not heard from since he was named supreme leader. And it does seem today there is increasing
03:03confirmation from Iranian sources that he's been injured. Is he in hiding, do you think?
03:13It's a very difficult question. I think to many people, it's still, there is a lot of question
03:18about his health, as well as how much his injuries are serious, because also many information
03:26is circulating everywhere about his health and also his serious injuries. And even there are some
03:34that pose that even he's not aware that still he has lost his closest members of his family,
03:45including his wife and his child and his father. So I think with the very, very limited information we
03:53have, still we have to wait for the upcoming information and being hopeful that something
04:02would be confirmed, at least formally, by the current structure of power and the leadership
04:10group of Iran at this time.
04:13And let's assume then that what we're seeing now continues, which is to say that we don't
04:19see Moshtaba Khamenei in public. What does that mean then? Is he sort of going to be governing
04:28from underground? I mean, we remember the Lebanese leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah,
04:34spent a lot of his life in hiding, fearing Israeli strikes. Do you suspect that that may be the
04:41strategy now taken by Khamenei?
04:46I think for, first of all, I think that the Islamic Republic has been through this kind of multiple
04:55crisis, at least within most recent, I don't say in years, within most recent weeks and even months.
05:04So it's very important for them, because they assume that with a lot of, you know, pressure from
05:12inside, as well as this war of the U.S. and Israel that imposed to them many pressures at the
05:20time,
05:21it's very necessary for them. And I think very important to signaling the message that they have a
05:30formal leader who is the Moshtaba Khamenei. And he is very important because in terms of he is deeply
05:38embedded within the security and I think bureaucratic apparatus and network in Iran. So it's, they are
05:46trying to signal to the international community and the regional level that still Islamic Republic is
05:55there, there is still institutional cohesion, as well as also in terms of ideological, there is
06:05ideological continuity for them. What I think at the meantime, they are so signaling much more important
06:12and even clear message to internally to the fragmented elite. And the figures that they put a really serious
06:24question about continuity of the leadership under the Moshtaba Khamenei, if he would be safe and healthy.
06:34So it's very important. I think we should consider all these points, but I'm sure that for the moment,
06:42they are thinking about having the Moshtaba Khamenei as the former leader of Iran as the most viable option,
06:52at least for the moment.
06:53Well, look, you know, you say this is about trying to show the West and also people within Iran that
07:00the regime
07:01continues despite these American and Israeli strikes. But doesn't the regime just look extremely weak
07:07if we haven't seen or heard from the leader and there are rumors that he's been, he's been badly injured?
07:16Yes, that's true. And also, they want to show something, you know, against all these claims that
07:24are at the moment are posing about the weaknesses of the structure of power. So even with all of these
07:33arguments and contesting issues regarding even his leadership, you see that many figures at the top
07:40political hierarchy, including Ali Larejani and even President Aziz Piyan, however, they would
07:46be even against, you know, selection of Moshtaba Khamenei as the leadership,
07:55as a leadership position, they still strongly defend the status of Islamic Republic and the political
08:04structure of Iran under the Islamic Republic.
08:08Yeah. And you mentioned Ali Larejani. There's been some suggestion that actually really
08:12he's the power behind the supreme leader. Is there any truth to that, do you think?
08:21I think a number of figures you can mention, but it's obviously that Ali Larejani at the moment,
08:27he's at the very, very high position in terms of heading the Supreme National Security Council.
08:34So he's in charge of many decisions at the time is happening inside the power structure of Iran.
08:42And I think he is one of the, maybe a number of figures that we have at the moment that
08:49they are
08:49leading the Iranian political structure.
08:52All right. Anahita Motazed Rad talking to us there from the London School of Economics. Thank you very much.
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