“Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei sounded a defiant tone in a statement that appeared in Iranian state media, but he has continued to stay out of public view, fueling speculation about his physical well-being.
Khamenei, in his first address since he was appointed supreme leader Sunday, vowed to attack U.S. bases in the Middle East and keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, blocking a narrow passage through which a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas transits.
Khamenei said Iran would open new fronts in the war. Iran has responded to U.S. and Israeli strikes by broadening the conflict, including hitting civilian infrastructure and energy facilities in Arab nations across the Gulf. He said Iran sought good relations with its neighbors, but that they over the years had allowed the U.S. to establish bases on their soil.
"In the recent attack, some of those military bases were used. Naturally, as we had clearly warned beforehand, and without targeting those countries themselves, we responded by striking only those bases," he said. "Also, the leverage of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must definitely continue to be used."
Khamenei, who was picked as Iran's new political and religious leader after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in Israeli airstrikes last month, hasn't been seen in public since the start of the war.
Despite administering many of his father's affairs and nurturing relations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Khamenei remains largely mysterious.
He has for decades operated in the shadows, without appearing in the media or releasing Islamic sermons to the public, despite his status as a learned cleric.
Since his elevation to supreme leader, his image has appeared on large banners in Tehran, including one showing his father giving him the Iranian flag. Most online propaganda featuring the new leader shows him in heavily edited pictures or in videos seemingly generated with artificial intelligence.
His statement, carried in writing by Iranian state media, contrasted with the regular televised addresses to the nation his father would give.
"It won't stop the rumors that he is incapacitated," said Saeid Golkar, an Iran-focused associate professor at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga who advocates a hard U.S. line against Iran.
However, his father didn't issue any statement during the 12-day war with Israel last June, when he was sheltering in a bunker to avoid assassination attempts. Israel has vowed to target the new supreme leader.
Khamenei's threats seemed to counter remarks Wednesday by President Trump that the U.S. war with Iran might end "soon." Trump said most military targets in the Islamic Republic had been struck.
"He sounds even more defiant, and more specific in his defiance, than his father," said Hamidreza Azizi, visiting fellow and Iran expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.
He noted that Khamenei added a surprising personal touch to his statement by linking the losses Iranians had suffered with the personal grief he experienced from losing his father, his wife, his sister and one of her young children in the war.
"I think it is very deliberate to show that he has personal reasons to remain defiant," Azizi said.” [1]
1. World News: Khamenei's Son Takes Harsh Stance at Helm. Sune Engel Rasmussen; Faucon, Benoit. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 13 Mar 2026: A5
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