December 7, an official next to Iran’s Supreme Leader denied rumors that Khamenei, 81, had deteriorated in health.
According to Reuters on December 7, Mehdi Fazaeli, an official beside Khamenei, tweeted on the same day: “Thank you, under the prayer of the believers, Khamenei is currently in good health and busy actively carrying out his official duties as originally planned.” Iran’s semi-official media Fars News Agency also reported its tweets.
The report pointed out that the official’s statement on Khamenei’s health seemed to be a response to some recent rumors. On December 5, U.S. Newsweek quoted a tweet from a self-proclaimed journalist as saying that an unnamed source from Iran said that Khamenei handed over his power to his son because of health problems, which may be related to prostate cancer.
Russian satellite news agency reported on the 6th that after the news release, Seyed Mohammad Marandi, a professor of English literature at Tehran University in Iran, tweeted to scold Newsweek for its lack of credibility and was one of the “discredit” mainstream media. Examples. Other experts expressed similar concerns about this unconfirmed report.
However, while the Israeli media are also closely monitoring and reporting the incident, a security official in the country closely monitoring the situation in Iran told Reuters: “We know these rumors and think they are just rumors.”
