Last month I asked, if there is no audio or video of Mojtaba Khamenei because of “security concerns,” why has there not even been a handwritten note from him? Shortly after, the regime published the first handwritten note attributed to Mojtaba since he was declared Iran’s Supreme Leader. It was a letter addressed to General Majid Mousavi, the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Aerospace Force. Rather than settling questions and doubts about Mojtaba’s whereabouts, however, the letter raised new ones.
For a start, it is difficult to understand why the regime chose to publish an apparently routine letter that dates back six weeks, at a time when far more significant developments were taking place. The letter is signed and dated August 1, 2026. Yet the very bottom line, after the signature and in brackets, appears to say that a copy was given to a “delegate” or “representative” on July 28, 2026.
If that reading is correct, how could a copy of a letter have been given to someone several days before the letter itself was signed and dated?
The content raises another question. The entire letter is about Mojtaba thanking the head of the Aerospace Force for maintaining the “supply chain.” But why would maintaining the supply chain fall under the responsibility of the head of the Aerospace Force? What exactly was this “supply chain,” and why did the supreme leader need to write personally to the Aerospace Force commander about it?
Then the contradictions become even more striking.
On September 29, 2026, Iran’s media platforms published another letter attributed to Mojtaba. This one supposedly dates to 1986, when Mojtaba was a teenager, and was addressed to his older brother, Mostafa.
The handwriting in the 1986 letter appears markedly different from the handwriting in the August letter. The signatures are even more difficult to reconcile. The differences are sufficiently obvious that they do not require a handwriting expert to notice them.
The handwritten letters are not the only claims about Mojtaba’s condition that raise questions.
Ayatollah Mohsen Heydari al-Kathir, a member of the Assembly of Experts—the body constitutionally responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader—also gave an account of Mojtaba’s condition in an interview with Al-Araby television on September 26, 2026.
According to Heydari, Mojtaba was injured in the February 28, 2026, attack at the location where his father, Ali Khamenei, was staying. He was taken to the hospital, which was subsequently bombed as well, Heydari said, leaving Mojtaba further injured and requiring him to be rescued from beneath the rubble.
Yet, in the same interview, Heydari said that he had been the first member of the Assembly of Experts to put forward Mojtaba’s name as the next Supreme Leader, after satisfying himself that Mojtaba was in perfect health.
Those two accounts contradict each other together: A man who supposedly suffered injuries severe enough to require rescue from two separate attacks nevertheless was described as being in perfect health to assume the most powerful position in the Islamic Republic, whose Constitution declares, “Whenever the Leader becomes temporarily unable to perform the duties of leadership owing to his illness or any other incident, then during this period, the council mentioned in this Article shall assume his duties.”
And still there has been no public appearance.
As Mojtaba’s absence continues, pressure for evidence that he is alive and capable of exercising the powers attributed to him is growing. Iranians are discussing the possibility that the regime soon may announce a new Supreme Leader. On September 28, IranWire reported that two sources with close connections to different factions inside the Islamic Republic told the publication that political figures across factions and numerous Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders believe that continuing Mojtaba’s leadership, allegedly with the assistance of artificial intelligence, has become unsustainable and is weakening the system. IranWire also reported that numerous members of the Assembly of Experts support choosing a new Supreme Leader.
Every attempt to demonstrate Mojtaba’s continued existence and authority is instead producing new inconsistencies and doubts. The longer that absence continues, the more difficult it becomes for even the regime’s supporters to believe the official line.
