By Margherita Stancati
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, said in a statement issued Friday that "safety must be taken away from our domestic and foreign enemies and given to our people." The defiant message came in response to the killing of Iran's minister of intelligence, Esmail Khatib, earlier in the week. Israel is pursuing a systematic campaign to assassinate Iran's top political and security leaders with the goal of destabilizing the regime and facilitating its collapse.
Khamenei hasn't appeared in public since he replaced his late father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war. No images or voice recordings have been released of the younger Khamenei either, fueling speculation about whether he was seriously injured in the strike that killed his father.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 20, 2026 07:01 ET (11:01 GMT)
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