Six months after airstrikes propelled him into power, Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei remains entirely unseen and unheard by Iranians, leaving a vacuum at the heart of the country’s leadership.

Growing doubts over his condition

Questions over Khamenei’s health and role are becoming increasingly fraught as Iran faces critical decisions in a war that has set the Middle East ablaze while wrecking the country’s fragile economy.

Iranian officials and senior sources say Khamenei remains in control, ruling from the shadows for security reasons as he recovers from disfiguring wounds, while delegating broad daily authority to a small circle of top figures. But with no photograph, video or audio message released since his appointment a week into the war, Iranians are growing more skeptical of his position in a system built on the leader’s absolute authority.

“The question is no longer whether Mojtaba is alive, but whether Iran still has a functioning supreme leader,” said Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute in Washington.

A leader absent even from his father’s funeral

Khamenei’s only messages to the public have come through a handful of written statements read aloud by news broadcasters. He was even absent from the elaborate week of funeral rites held last month for his father, the previous supreme leader.

Top officials attribute his absence to assassination fears and say he holds frequent meetings with senior figures, receives all major reports and makes the final call on every important issue. President Masoud Pezeshkian said on August 10 that he had held a seven-hour meeting with Khamenei.

Even hardline supporters are voicing doubts. “We need to hear our leader’s voice, or see any sign that he is there on top and leading the country to give us more confidence,” said a member of the Basij volunteer militia in the seminary city of Qom, who requested anonymity. He said he still believes Khamenei is making key decisions, but that the lack of any photograph is hurting morale.

Among Iranians opposed to the ruling system, the skepticism runs deeper. “How do we know that Mojtaba has not been killed?” asked Shahrokh, a pro-reform businessman in Tehran who also asked not to be fully identified. “It is not logical that there is not a single sign proving he is alive, let alone evidence that he is involved in decision-making.”

The Revolutionary Guards anchor the power structure

Iran has weathered six months of war with its most powerful enemies and remains standing, its political system intact. Its military still holds the ability to choke off global energy supplies and strike U.S. Gulf allies, and the clerical establishment has shown it can absorb the loss of a supreme leader and senior commanders without collapsing.

But Iran’s economy is buckling under the war’s cost and a months-long blockade of its oil exports, which has battered the rial and raised the risk of a return to the mass protests that authorities crushed in January, killing thousands. The ruling establishment has reorganized around one clear goal: preserve the state, restore deterrence and contain the economic fallout.

The Revolutionary Guards have grown more influential since the war began and remain central to strategy at the top of a reorganized power structure built around the Supreme National Security Council, which includes top Guards commanders alongside political figures such as Pezeshkian and parliament speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf.

Several senior sources in Iran told Reuters that Khamenei is indeed meeting with those top figures, is fully involved in deliberations and holds final say on all major questions. One senior official said only a small number of officials have direct contact with him in person, and that no details about him have been published for fear of leaking information that could help the U.S. target him. A person close to his inner circle said his health is improving significantly and described him as sharp and engaged in decision-making.

“Despite all the pressures, services to the people have not stopped. Our foreign policy line is unified and our decisions are coherent. All of this shows the supreme leader is in charge,” a second official said.

A private man forced into a public role

Even before the war, Khamenei preferred a behind-the-scenes role as his father’s top aide, avoiding public attention. He was disfigured in the early hours of February 28, when Israel and the United States launched the war with airstrikes that killed his father, according to senior sources.

Now elevated to a position seen as carrying divine authority, at the country’s gravest crisis since the 1979 revolution, his continued absence looks harder to justify.

“A genuine deal with Washington requires Mojtaba’s unmistakable approval, and so does any decision to sustain a long and costly conflict with the United States,” Vatanka said. “His prolonged absence has created a dangerous situation in which rival factions can all claim to know what the leader really wants.”

Author: Staff Writer | Edited for WTFwire.com | SOURCE: Reuters