Trump says he thinks Iran’s new supreme leader is alive but ‘damaged’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump said that he thinks new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, whose father, the former supreme leader, was killed on the first day of the US and Israel’s war on Iran, is alive but “damaged.”

Khamenei has not been seen by Iranians since his selection on Sunday by a clerical assembly, and his first comments were read out by a television presenter on Thursday.

An Iranian official told Reuters on Wednesday that the newly appointed supreme leader was lightly injured but was continuing to operate, after state television described him as war-wounded.

“I think he probably is (alive).

I think he is damaged, but I think he’s probably alive in some form, you know,“ Trump said in an interview on Fox News’ “The Brian Kilmeade Show.”

His remarks were published by Fox News late on Thursday. In Khamenei’s first comments, he vowed to keep the Strait of Hormuz shut and called on neighboring countries to close US bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.

The US and Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28.

Iran has responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf countries with US bases.

As the war approached the two-week mark, having killed thousands and shaken financial markets, the leaders of Iran, Israel and the United States all voiced defiance and have vowed to fight on.