Students maintain posters of Ayatollah Khamenei through the annual gathering in entrance of the previous US Embassy in Tehran.
Photo: AP
On Saturday, a number of social media posts surfaced claiming that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, 85, is in a coma. The declare started spreading quickly on social media in early October following a New York Times report that Ali Khamenei was “significantly ailing.” However, there is no such thing as a official data from any supply that the Ayatollah’s well being has deteriorated additional.
Jason Brodsky, director of coverage for the Union Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and non-resident scholar on the Middle East Institute, debunked the claims, saying they have been probably false. He added that Ali Khamenei was final seen on November 7.
“My timeline is full of tweets concerning the supreme chief of the Iranian regime being in a coma or lifeless,” he wrote. “There just isn’t a single dependable information outlet that has reported that, so please watch out what you publish. Khamenei’s final public look was on November 7.”
A New York Times report revealed on October 27 claimed that Khamenei was affected by a severe medical situation and gave the impression to be “significantly ailing.” The report even claimed that Ali Khamenei’s eldest son Mojtaba Khamenei can be his successor.
Claims have surfaced on social media that the 85-year-old Ali Khamenei is in a coma, regardless of there being no experiences that his well being has deteriorated additional. Below are some such posts.
Images of Ali Khamenei sitting in a hospital mattress additionally surfaced, additional fueling rumors that he was in a coma. However, these photos have additionally been debunked as being from 2014.
The NYT report that Ali Khamenei is “gravely ailing” was revealed shortly after Israel carried out precision navy strikes in opposition to a number of Iranian navy targets. The Israel Defense Forces mentioned the assault was carried out in response to an October 1 Iranian missile assault on Israel.