Almost a week after his appointment as Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei remains in the shadows.
Iranians got their first sense of his thinking on Thursday, when a lengthy statement attributed to him was read on state television. The following day was both his first Friday as leader and Al Quds Day – occasions when Iran’s supreme leader typically appears in public. But Mojtaba did not.
It’s now been six days since he was named their supreme leader, and the Iranian people have still not seen him or heard his voice.
A source with knowledge of the situation told CNN Mojtaba had suffered a fractured foot, a bruised left eye and minor lacerations to his face on the first day of the US and Israel’s bombardment campaign almost two weeks ago, the same wave of strikes that killed his father and Iran’s top military commanders.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s son, a government adviser, wrote later that Mojtaba was injured but in a safe place and doing well based on reports from those in the know. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he is “likely disfigured” without providing any evidence, and Israel has previously indicated that any new supreme leader would be a target.
His absence has done little to dampen the fervor of those faithful to the regime, thousands of whom have taken to the streets to pledge their allegiance. The pledge has become a rallying cry as the regime seeks to consolidate support through mass demonstrations, particularly in the final days of the holy month of Ramadan.
Yet the continued absence of Iran’s new leader raises a deeper question: Who is truly running the country at a time of war?
For nearly four decades, Mojtaba Khamenei operated largely behind the scenes during his father’s rule, wielding influence but rarely appearing in public. Now thrust into the most powerful position in Iran during a military confrontation with the US and Israel, his continued invisibility underscores the changing nature of power in the Islamic Republic – where institutions and security bodies may matter more than the individual at the top.
A leader in the shadows
State-backed religious eulogists have used their pulpits to urge followers to pledge their allegiance, with influential cleric Mahmoud Karimi going so far as to declare that “it says enough about his character that no one has ever seen him,” framing Khamenei’s elusiveness not as vulnerability, but as virtue.
Among regime critics, the new leader’s lack of presence – both literal and figurative – has prompted ridicule.
Doctored images of Mojtaba Khamenei as a cardboard cutout sitting in the seat of power have circulated widely on social media, alongside memes mocking the mystery surrounding his whereabouts.
There is so little verified footage of the new leader that government news outlets and state-backed social media channels have resorted to circulating AI-generated videos of him to drum up support.
Videos depict the new leader delivering speeches to large crowds and standing beside his father at key moments – scenes that never actually occurred. Other AI pictures show the elder Khamenei passing on the mantle of the revolution to his son, or Mojtaba Khamenei embracing the slain Iranian general Qasem Soleimani.
“They’re calling him the AI supreme leader,” one man in Tehran said mockingly.
A political culture shaped by myth and history
Mojtaba Khamenei has spent years behind the scenes of Iran’s vast political and security apparatus, rarely seen or heard during nearly four decades of his father’s rule.
His sudden ascendancy during wartime, coupled with the uncertainty about his whereabouts, evokes imagery deeply embedded in the mythology of the Islamic Republic and the Shia theology that it is anchored to.
Historian Arash Azizi says that the late Khamenei’s “iconic killing” has made for useful Shia imagery for the regime.
“They’ll naturally try to use the same themes around Mojtaba, whose status as son of a ‘martyred Imam’ who was wounded himself is similar to that of Shia saints from the Battle of Karbala,” said Azizi, who is a lecturer and historian at Yale University.
Iran’s political culture has also been shaped by decades of war and crisis. Just one year after the Islamic Republic was established in 1979, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein invaded Iran, launching a brutal eight-year conflict that killed hundreds of thousands of people and reshaped the country’s politics.
So far, regime loyalists have publicly shown little concern over the new leader’s absence, appearing content to wait for his eventual emergence.
That experience has conditioned many supporters of the regime to understand wartime constraints.
The system behind the throne
The regime can sustain a period of time without public appearances, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at London’s Chatham House think tank.
“No visibility does not necessarily undermine legitimacy in the short term, especially if key institutions continue functioning and decisions appear coordinated,” she said.
Some analysts say what matters most in Tehran right now is not the visibility of the supreme leader, but the cohesion of the institutions beneath him. Powerful security bodies such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are likely directing wartime strategy regardless of Mojtaba’s presence.
His appointment to the top of the political hierarchy may be enough to provide the political legitimacy needed to give the military leadership, led by the IRGC, the political cover it needs to continue prosecuting the “Ramadan War,” as the regime calls it, according to plans already in place.
“These elements will likely hold the real power in Iran, not the person of Mojtaba, even if he finally appears in public and heals his injuries,” says Azizi, the historian.
For now, there is little urgency to parade the new leader before the cameras. He is already serving the purposes the regime requires of him.
What remains to be seen is what happens after the war ends.
“Post war, however – or under more challenging circumstances – the political elite, not just the public, will need clearer signals that he is able to exercise authority,” Vakil said.
For now, his location remains secret. And few of his followers are asking why. The new leader has a target on his back.
