Categories: Just Politics

Trump: Iran’s new supreme leader alive but ‘damaged’

United States President Donald Trump said that he thinks new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but “damaged.”

Khamenei, whose father, the former supreme leader, was killed ​on the first day of the U.S. and Israeli war on Iran, 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, March 12, 2026.

“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 with Fox News on Thursday.

Oil prices rise despite US sanctions waiver on Russian oil

In Khamenei’s first comments, he vowed to keep the Strait of ​Hormuz shut and ​called on ⁠neighbouring countries to close U.S. bases on their territory or risk Iran targeting them.

The U.S. and ​Israel began attacks on Iran on February 28. ​Iran ⁠has responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf countries with U.S. 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.

The Star

Segun Ojo

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