Dr. Masoud Pezeshkian met with Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and exchanged views at the beginning of his 3rd year as president" - the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader informed. President Masoud Pezeshkian took office in July 2024.
The Office of Supreme Leader Khamenei said that the two leaders "detailed the issues and difficulties of the country", including "the current military situation and future prospects".
Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has never appeared in public since becoming Supreme Leader and his speech recording has not been broadcast, only written statements related to him have been published by Iranian state media.
In May, President Pezeshkian said he had met with Leader Khamenei but did not elaborate. At that time, the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader did not make any statements about this meeting.
On August 5, Iranian President Pezeshkian said that contacting Supreme Leader Khamenei at this time is "very difficult". The health situation of the Iranian Supreme Leader has always been of concern since he took office because there is much information that he was injured in the attacks on February 28 that killed his father - late Leader Ali Khamenei.
On August 9, Iranian state news agency Tasnim quoted a general in the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as saying that images showing Supreme Leader Khamenei among the people and in meetings will "be announced in the future" but did not reveal further details.
Also related to Iran, AFP reported that former Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Mohsen Rezaei has been appointed head of the country's highest national security agency.
Before Mr. Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr resigned as Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council and was appointed to a new position, President Masoud Pezeshkian appointed Mr. Mohsen Rezaei as head of this agency" - Spokesman for the Iranian Presidential Palace Mehdi Tabatabaei shared on social network X.
Mr. Rezaei, 71, led the Revolutionary Guards from 1981 to 1997 - a term that included almost the entire Iran-Iraq war - before holding some senior political positions. Recently, he served as Military Advisor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei. In July, Mr. Rezaei declared that controlling the Strait of Hormuz, currently the focus of the US-Iran conflict, is "more important than dozens of atomic bombs".
Mr. Rezaei's predecessor, Mr. Zolghadr, is also a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard Corps and assumed the leadership of the council in March. According to a statement from the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, Mr. Zolghadr will become the Political Advisor to Leader Khamenei.
