There is still no official confirmation or denial of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death in the Iranian media or from government sources.
All media outlets in Iran are closely supervised by the regime and have yet to comment. The only website which responded to the rumors so far is Baztab, which is owned by Mohsen Razaee, the secretary of the Expediency Discernment Council of Iran, which claimed that the rumors were "an Israeli conspiracy."
On the other side of the ledger, I've had reports from sources connected with the Iranian dissident movement who are saying that Khamenei is dead. And they've been reliable before.
Khamenei was hospitalized for cancer last month, and he's not been seen in public since December 15, when he arrived to vote in the elections for the Council of Experts and the local councils in Iran. Surprisingly, however, he did not appear in public in order to deliver his sermon in honor of the Haj, which he's done every year. Instead, his office issued a written announcement that purportedly came from him on his behalf. .
If Khamenei is actually dead, Iran's Council of Experts, the 86 mullahs that rule Iran will elect one of its members as the new leader.
Since this could involve some internal power struggles between the clerics and their various factions, they may be keeping Khamenei's death - if it actually occurred - a secret until these conflicts are ironed out and a new leader is ready to be named.
Stay tuned...
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2 comments:
Khamenei is keeping a low profile because he’s not sure how to respond to the unanimous UN resolution against Iran. There’s clearly some behind the scenes discussions going on in Tehran among the senior leadership about an official response to the resolution, which came as a surprise. Ahmadinejad’s stupid comments were expected and no big deal. But the first time the leader appears publicly he’ll have to say something about the resolution and that will be a bg deal.
More than likely than not, Michael Ledeen — who is a a former lackey of AIPAC and probable continued Israeli intelligence operative — is spreading lies about Khamenei’s health to put pressure on the regime. There’s no reason to believe it. Ledeen is a longtime liar on both Iran and Iraq and has absolutely no credibility among serious Iran watchers. Same goes for her pathetic henchwoman Banafsheh Zand and this cretinous filth-monger Amir Taheri.
Amazing how they're always `anonymous'.
A few things..
First of all, the UN resolution was no surprise to Iran. If you think that the Russians didn't clear EVERYTHING with the Mullahs before voting for the so-called sanctions, I doubt YOUR credibility.
Everything in the UN resolution was known in detail by Iran beforehand and agreed to or it would never have made it past the Russian veto.
As for Ledeen, he's not my source on this, as I mentioned in the article. But to call him an `AIPAC lackey' and put this down to an Israeli plot just underlines what I've always said - if Israel didn't exist, the Muslims world would have had to invent it. ALWAYS the Joos, right?
And frankly, while I don't agree with some of what he says, I kinda take issue with both your remarks on his veracity and your opinion on how he's regarded by `serious Iran Watchers.'
As for Banafsheh Zand and Amir Taheri, anyone who would use terms like `cretinous' `pathetic' to refer to either of them likely has their own problems on how they're regarded by any serious person.
To slander intelligent people merely because they have the temerity to disagree with you is in itself rather `cretinous and pathetic', if you don't mind that obsrvation on my part.
Thanks for dropping by.
ff
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