Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not released a single public message since taking power, reportedly because of severe injuries sustained during Israeli airstrikes in late February, according to a bombshell report citing Iranian officials.
The 56-year-old leader is said to be badly burned, struggling to speak, and recovering from multiple surgeries, including procedures on his leg and hand. Officials told The New York Times that he may require plastic surgery and is awaiting a prosthetic limb.
The result: a leader effectively cut off from his own government.
According to the report, even senior officials are avoiding contact out of fear Israeli forces could track their movements. Messages are being passed through a painstaking human courier chain, traveling across roads and back channels to reach Khamenei’s undisclosed location.
And the reply? It takes the same long road back.
That communication breakdown is now shaping geopolitics.
President Donald Trump has pointed directly to Iran’s fractured leadership as a key obstacle in negotiations, extending the current cease-fire while waiting for a coherent response from Tehran.
“There’s obviously a lot of internal division,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said, describing a struggle between regime hardliners and more pragmatic factions.
The uncertainty is not just about policy. It’s about who’s actually in charge.
Iran’s president Masoud Pezeshkian and health minister Mohammad-Reza Zafarghandi have reportedly been involved in Khamenei’s care. But decision-making authority is increasingly shifting elsewhere.
Specifically, to the military.
The report says power is being delegated to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, signaling a tilt away from civilian leadership and toward hardline control.
That shift raises new questions about whether Iran’s top diplomats, including foreign minister Abbas Araghchi and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, can credibly negotiate on behalf of the regime.
More over at The New York Post:
Iran Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei's face is so disfigured he'll need plastic surgery https://t.co/g0cbyx5bV7 pic.twitter.com/txFKSIYBnB
— New York Post (@nypost) April 23, 2026
