As the sea of mourners filled a colossal mosque courtyard in Tehran to see the body of Iran’s slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for the last time, a mystery man in clerical robes stood at a distance, observing from a balcony the unfolding of the historic ceremony.
The man, standing at the side of a small group of people, appeared in a grainy video that went viral on social media, fueled by suspicions that he was the ayatollah’s son and Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei.
His face wasn’t clear in the video and beyond the robes, which were similar to those worn by many other Shiite clerics at the ceremony, there was nothing to indicate that it was Khamenei. Reza Mousavi Vaez, an Iranian cleric, later stated on social media that he was the man in the video.
But the fact of the footage going viral tells its own story: Many supporters were more focused on looking for signs of Mojtaba than on the grand ceremony to pay respects to the longest-serving – and perhaps the most consequential – leader in the Islamic Republic’s 47-year history.
Believed to have been wounded in the February attack by Israel and the US that killed his father, mother and wife, the new supreme leader has remained in hiding since the war began, communicating with his supporters only through written statements, never showing his face or using his voice.
