Before a fatal strike killed most of his immediate family and transformed his fate, some doubted Mojtaba Khamenei would ever rule Iran.The second son of late ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a mysterious and rarely seen backroom bureaucrat who was said to wield considerable influence over the Islamic Republic from behind his father's office.But for all the supposed sway the younger Khamenei had, his father did not want him to inherit the power he had spent decades building, and then enforcing with an iron fist."Khamenei [was] fully aware that appointing his son as his successor would catalyse division, chaos, and turmoil within the regime — the exact opposite of the smooth transition he [was] trying to achieve," Iran analysts Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi wrote in a 2022 journal article.On a sunny morning in February, those plans went up in smoke as bombs and missiles rained down on Iran.Embroiled in war and experiencing poor economic growth, water and energy shortages, a weak currency and the weakening of most of its proxies, Iran was left scrambling for a leader at the most perilous moment in the regime's history.And it didn't take long for the nation's remaining powerbrokers to disregard their former leader's wishes and settle on one of Khamenei's sons.Analysts interpreted Mojtaba's selection as an effort to maintain continuity and an act of defiance against an enemy that had sought regime change.But there was plenty of scepticism about the younger Khamenei as the nation's third Supreme Leader and protector of the revolution."He started his leadership from a bunker … so his leadership [was] absolutely weak at the start," Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, author and head of digital at UK-based news outlet Iran International, told ABC News.Six months later, he remains publicly absent and is yet to be seen or heard. Even those among the upper echelons of the regime said they have not laid eyes on him.An Iranian ambassador reported that Mojtaba was wounded in the attack on the Khamenei compound in February and had sustained injuries to his "legs, hand and arm"."The leader of the country is in hiding in the country he's supposed to rule. It's a profound thing," Farzan Sabet, an analyst and researcher of Middle East geopolitics at the Geneva Graduate Institute, told ABC News.But his continued absence has fuelled fevered speculation as to his whereabouts and capacity to lead. There are rumours he is gravely ill and that public statements attributed to him are being written by someone else.Several Iranians the ABC spoke to said they think he is dead.From posts and statements shared on his social media channels in recent months, as well as accounts given by Iranians inside the country and analysts, this is what we have learnt about Iran's mysterious leader and the impact his prolonged absence is having on a nation at war.The missing MojtabaInside Iran, Mojtaba has been hidden from public view for the entire six-month conflict.Details about his location and condition are scant but US intelligence officials have told US media he is most likely in a secret shelter with little access to the outside world and limited ways of corresponding. A woman holds a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei during the funeral for his father.(Reuters: Teba Sadiq)An unnamed security source told ABC America the missing leader had shunned technological devices to avoid detection by his enemies and was instead passing written messages through couriers. But the precautions have cost him."Every piece of information he receives is dated and there's a lot of latency to his response," another US official told CBS.The extreme caution taken by the younger Khamenei indicates lessons have been drawn from Iran's intelligence failures on the first day of the war, which the nation's political leaders blamed for the killing of the ayatollah and many senior regime figures."To me, the most significant issue is that [the US and Israel] knew meetings were taking place [on February 28]. That points to a serious security breach, one that appears to have existed at the time and may well still exist today," Foreign Minister Abbas Aragnchi said in an interview with Iranian documentary maker Javad Mogouyi last month.Israel and the US used a mix of surveillance and technology to track the late ayatollah for their opening strikes, according to the UK Times, hacking traffic cameras in Tehran to spot the vehicles used by the former supreme leader's bodyguards and associates.Mojtaba appears eager to avoid the same fate, with Mazaher Hosseini, a senior official in the office of Iran's supreme leader, highlighting some of Iran's paranoia around US and Israeli interference in a video posted by the Nour news agency."The enemy is trying, through various pretexts, to obtain an audio or video recording of him in order to misuse it," he said in May."At the appropriate time, he himself will speak to all of you."Until that day comes, the regime has tried to make Mojtaba's presence felt on the streets of Tehran and online.Soon after his ascension, large billboards and murals went up around Iran's capital depicting Ali Khamenei handing the nation's flag to his son, in a symbolic display of power shifting from one generation to another.Other images of Mojtaba, holding a baby or a gun, have been shared online in what appears to be a deluge of AI-generated or AI-edited content of the new leader, who has been rarely photographed throughout his life. A billboard of Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, with former ayatollahs Khamenei and Khomeini went up in March.(Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters) An AI-generated image of Ali Khamenei handing a gun to Mojtaba Khamenei.(Supplied: X) An AI-edited image of Mojtaba Khamenei holding a baby.(Supplied: X)Official Instagram, Telegram and X profiles for Mojtaba also went live on March 12. His X handle @Rahbarenghelab_ means "leader of the revolution" in Persian.Posts shared on these accounts, along with his written statements, have been one of few ways Iranians and observers can attempt to decipher the new leader's personality and approach to the war.Most of the 170 posts shared on Mojtaba's X account are designed to appeal to the Islamic Republic's loyal base. He has promised to avenge his father's death, vowed to eliminate anyone "misusing" the Strait of Hormuz, and called for unity and resilience in the face of enemy attack.But analysts told The Media Line it was unclear if Mojtaba was the author of these missives, pointing to spelling and structural errors in his early messages that were at odds with someone as educated as Mojtaba."When there's a vacuum of knowledge, people start speculating," Dara Conduit, a Middle East analyst and author from the University of Melbourne, told ABC News.And intrigue over the mysterious leader has only grown in recent months.'Shouldn't I be able to see my leader?'A Supreme Leader withdrawing from the spotlight at a time of war is not uncommon in the Islamic Republic.Last year, during the 12-day conflict with Israel, Ali Khamenei retreated to a secure location inside Iran and avoided any public appearances for security reasons.From relative safety, he issued pre-taped messages to reassure his followers and reappeared once the war was over.But Mojtaba has not issued a video or audio recording in almost 200 days. Mojtaba Khamenei has not publicly appeared since becoming supreme leader.(Getty: Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto)"It certainly raises question marks as to whether he is alive, if he is wounded and disfigured, or if his lack of public presence is just a security precaution," Trita Parsi, Iran foreign policy analyst from the Quincy Institute, told ABC News.Few people claim to have laid eyes on Mojtaba since his appointment. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said as recently as last month he had not seen him and indicated only a small cluster of people had been granted access.One of that select group is President Masoud Pezeshkian, who said in May he had spent two and half hours with Mojtaba.He did not reveal when and where the pair met but described the conversation as "completely direct, frank and filled with a sense of closeness and trust".The pair reportedly met again in late July or early August, Mr Pezeshkian said, and discussed a broad range of issues affecting the nation.But the messages have done little to dispel the suspicions of the Iranian public who have nothing but questions when it comes to the ayatollah and his "really suspicious" absence."Shouldn't I be able to see my leader after six or seven months?" Leila, a resident in Tehran whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told the ABC in a voice note."Shouldn't he appear in public, speak to the people and let us hear what he has to say, see him, and understand what his plans are for our future?"Every day I'm waiting to see even a short five-or-10-minute video. Anything. I must see my leader."After Mojtaba did not appear during Nowruz, the Iranian New Year celebrated at the end of March, some hoped he would surface during the week-long funeral ceremonies for his father last month. His three brothers attended the first public service in Tehran, but Mojtaba was nowhere to be seen."We don't know who he is, where he is, and even if he is alive," one frustrated Tehran resident, who has not been identified for security reasons, told the ABC during the funeral proceedings."Some say he escaped, others say he's dead," another Tehran resident, Shadi, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told the ABC."There is a strong possibility that Mojtaba doesn't exist at all [and] the Revolutionary Guards are simply using his name to do whatever they want."Rumours and AI jokes plague MojtabaThis week, The Atlantic cited sources inside the Iranian government speculating that Mojtaba may have recently died from the injuries he received at the start of the war.Another report by IranWire indicated rumours were swirling about Mojtaba being on his deathbed at the highest levels of the regime."I don't think he's dead," US President Donald Trump told radio host Glenn Beck, when he was asked about the Atlantic report last week."He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded but I don't think he's dead."Trump said when the US negotiation team talks to the Iranian side, their negotiators discuss their need for Mojtaba's approval. If he's dead, "they're putting on a pretty good show," he added.In a bid to fill the void, pro-Iran accounts recently began sharing footage of Mojtaba sitting on a floor in an undisclosed location and speaking to Iran's president.No date was given for the video and while the footage does not appear to carry a recognisable AI-generation watermark, key attributes of possible AI-generation are noticeable. Noise, or pixel crackling, is discernible on the wall-mounted fan, while warping can be seen on the wall line behind the two men. Video circulating on social media of Mojtaba Khamenei meeting the Iranian president appears to be AI-edited.(Supplied: X) Noise, or pixel crackling, is discernible on the wall-mounted fan in the video.(Supplied: X)The spread of AI-generated photos of the younger Khamenei have only generated further confusion in Iran, where he has come to be known as the "AI supreme leader"."People make a lot of jokes about him and they kind of mock him," Dr Sabet said."Iranians love to make jokes. And the more jokes they make about you, the more mocked you are, the less seriously you'll be taken as a political figure."In addition to the videos circulated on social media, Iranian state-linked media have released video footage this month purportedly of Mojtaba Khamenei.Fars News released footage this week that it said was of the supreme leader presiding over a religious academic study session. No date was given for the video, but the outlet said it was recorded before he became supreme leader.It followed the release of an undated, 15-second video clip by another Iranian outlet, the semiofficial Mehr News agency, earlier this month. It appeared to show Mojtaba speaking with a group of other men. Mojtaba Khamenei is the second son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.