Iranian President Massoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that communication with Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is currently "very difficult", a rare official acknowledgement of the challenges surrounding the leader's prolonged absence from public life.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has not appeared in public since assuming the role following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran on 28 February. The new supreme leader was gravely wounded in those strikes, suffering severe burns to his face and requiring extensive surgery. His absence from his father's funeral in July fuelled speculation about his condition.
Pezeshkian, speaking in an interview on state television, defended the ayatollah, saying their meetings had been productive and marked by rationality. He lamented that the current situation allows ill-intentioned individuals to present a distorted image of the supreme leader.