June 2, 2026
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing conerning the fiscal year 2027 budget for the State Department, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on June 2, 2026. Rubio is testifying publicly before Congress for the first time since the war in Iran began. (Photo by Brendan SMIALOWSKI / AFP)
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded in US-Israeli attacks and has not been seen in public since assuming office, is alive and increasingly active.
“I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level,” Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, succeeded his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli strikes that launched the war on February 28.
