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The Israeli military has vowed to find and neutralise Motjaba Khamenei, the new Supreme Leader of Iran, who succeeded his father, the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, who was killed by United States/Israeli airstrikes on February 28.
“We don’t know about Mojtaba Khamenei, we don’t hear him, we don’t see him, but I can tell you one thing: we will track him down, find him, and neutralise him,” military spokesman Brigadier General Effie Defrin told journalists on Tuesday.
Before he was appointed, U.S. President Donald Trump had demanded a say in the appointment of the late Ayatollah Khamenei, as he did in Venezuela. The U.S. also offered a $10 million reward for information about him and other top officials last week.
Motjaba has not made a public appearance since he was appointed, and U.S officials have fueled rumours of him being wounded and “likely disfigured”.
Israel had earlier claimed to have killed the Islamic Republic’s powerful national security chief, Ali Larijani, in an airstrike. His death was confirmed on Tuesday night.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had described Larijani as “the boss of the Revolutionary Guards, which is the gang of gangsters that actually runs Iran”, in a televised statement.
David Khalfa, co-founder of the Atlantic Middle East Forum, told AFP that Larijani “has effectively been the figure in charge of the regime’s survival, its regional policy and its defence strategy”.
“It’s the supreme leader who gives the order, but he is the one who carries it out. He is the right-hand man,” he said.
Netanyahu said the overthrow of Iran’s authorities by the people “will not happen all at once, it will not happen easily. But if we persist in this — we will give them a chance to take their fate into their own hands.”
