Mojtaba Khamenei was hurt in strike that killed his father, Iran’s Cyprus ambassador confirms

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“Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the February 28th attack that killed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and six other family members. The attack targeted the presidential complex in Tehran during US-led airstrikes. Mojtaba Khamenei is reportedly recovering in the hospital and has not appeared in public since the attack.

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Alireza Salarian says Iran’s new supreme leader was lucky to survive strike that killed six of his family members

Helena Smith

Iran’s new supreme leader was said to be lucky to survive the strike. Photograph: Majid Khahi/Reuters

Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was injured in the 28 February attack that killed six of his family members, including his father, Tehran’s ambassador to Cyprus has confirmed.

In an interview conducted at his embassy compound in Nicosia, Alireza Salarian elaborated on the circumstances in which Khamenei, 56, was injured, saying he was lucky to survive the strike, which levelled the late ayatollah’s residence.

“He was also there and he was injured in that bombardment but I haven’t seen that reflected in the foreign news,” he told the Guardian. “I have heard that he was injured in his legs and hand and arm … I think he is in the hospital because he is injured.”

Explaining why the cleric had not appeared in public or made any statements since he succeeded his father on Sunday, he added: “I don’t think he is comfortable [in any condition] to give a speech.”

The attack occurred on the opening day of US-led airstrikes against Iran, when the sprawling presidential complex in the heart of Tehran was targeted. It was the 10th day of the holy month of Ramadan, said the ambassador, and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was at his residence with several members of his family, including Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra, and his teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, who were also killed in the attack.

Alireza Salarian conducted the interview at his embassy compound in Nicosia. Photograph: Helena Smith/The Guardian

Iranian media reports suggested that Ali Khamenei’s wife, Mansour, died three days after the aerial strike.

“The [late] supreme leader was killed with his wife, with his daughter, with his son-in-law and with his daughter’s 14-month-old baby,” said Salarian, who was in Iran when the US-led offensive began. “They were inside their house near the presidential office. Top commanders were also killed as they were also invited. The supreme leader had four sons and two daughters and actually he lived in the same place where he worked.”

On Wednesday Yousef Pezeshkian, a top government adviser and the son of Iran’s president, had said Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded but stopped short of explaining how. In a post on his Telegram channel, he wrote: “I heard news that Mr Mojtaba Khamenei had been injured. I have asked some friends who had connections. They told me that, thank God, he is safe and sound.” An Iranian official on Wednesday told Reuters that Khamenei was “lightly injured” but still continuing to operate.

Earlier this week Iranian state TV described the regime’s new leader as a “wounded veteran of the Ramadan war” but did not specify his injuries.

The US president, Donald Trump, called Mojtaba Khamenei’s election by an 88-member committee of clerics “an unacceptable choice”, adding: “He is not going to last long.”

Israel has warned it will not hesitate to assassinate the Shia cleric, thought to be as hardline as his father, who had held the post for 37 years after the Islamic revolution.

Salarian told the Guardian the late ayatollah “had not wanted his son” to replace him. “High-ranking clergymen did ask him but the late supreme leader said ‘no’ because he didn’t want a dynastic system. He was elected. [After the attack] top-ranking clergymen said: ‘This is your job; you have to obey.’”

Western intelligence services believe the new leader is being deliberately kept out of the public eye for fear of an assassination attempt. “I don’t know if he [the new leader] is worried or not, but we know that the US, and especially Israel, will target him,” the ambassador said.“

 

How Trump and His Advisers Miscalculated Iran’s Response to War

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“President Trump and his advisers underestimated Iran’s aggressive response to the U.S.-Israeli attack, leading to a significant disruption in global oil markets. Despite warnings from some advisers, Trump prioritized the mission to dismantle the Iranian regime over potential economic consequences. The administration’s lack of a clear strategy for the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial shipping lane, has exacerbated the crisis, causing oil prices to spike and prompting concerns about the war’s long-term impact.

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In the lead-up to the U.S.-Israeli attack, President Trump downplayed the risks to the energy markets as a short-term concern that should not overshadow the mission to decapitate the Iranian regime.

March 10, 2026

In response to Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, and oil prices have spiked.Benoit Tessier/Reuters

On Feb. 18, as President Trump weighed whether to launch military attacks on Iran, Chris Wright, the energy secretary, told an interviewer he was not concerned that the looming war might disrupt oil supplies in the Middle East and wreak havoc in energy markets.

Even during the Israeli and U.S. strikes against Iran last June, Mr. Wright said, there had been little disruption in the markets. “Oil prices blipped up and then went back down,” he said. Some of Mr. Trump’s other advisers shared similar views in private, dismissing warnings that — the second time around — Iran might wage economic warfare by closing shipping lanes carrying roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

The extent of that miscalculation was laid bare in recent days, as Iran threatened to fire at commercial oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic choke point through which all ships must pass on their way out of the Persian Gulf. In response to the Iranian threats, commercial shipping has come to a standstill in the Gulf, oil prices have spiked, and the Trump administration has scrambled to find ways to tamp down an economic crisis that has triggered higher gasoline prices for Americans.

The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat. Iran has responded far more aggressively than it did during last June’s 12-day war, firing barrages of missiles and drones at U.S. military bases, cities in Arab nations across the Middle East, and on Israeli population centers.

U.S. officials have had to adjust plans on the fly, from hastily ordering the evacuation of embassies to developing policy proposals to reduce gas prices.

After Trump administration officials gave a closed-door briefing to lawmakers on Tuesday, Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, said on social media that the administration had no plan for the Strait of Hormuz and did “not know how to get it safely back open.”

Inside the administration, some officials are growing pessimistic about the lack of a clear strategy to finish the war. But they have been careful not to express that directly to the president, who has repeatedly declared that the military operation is a complete success.

Mr. Trump has laid out maximalist goals like insisting that Iran name a leader who will submit to him, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have described narrower and more tactical objectives that could provide an off-ramp in the near term.

Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said the administration “had a strong game plan” before the war broke out, and vowed that oil prices would drop after it ended.

“The purposeful disruption in the oil market by the Iranian regime is short term, and necessary for the long-term gain of wiping out these terrorists and the threat they pose to America and the world,” she said in a statement.

This article is based on interviews with a dozen U.S. officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss private conversations.

‘Show Some Guts’

Mr. Hegseth acknowledged on Tuesday that Iran’s ferocious response against its neighbors caught the Pentagon somewhat off guard. But he insisted that Iran’s actions were backfiring.

“I can’t say that we anticipated necessarily that’s exactly how they would react, but we knew it was a possibility,” Mr. Hegseth said at a Pentagon news conference. “I think it was a demonstration of the desperation of the regime.”

Mr. Trump has displayed growing frustration over how the war is disrupting the oil supply, telling Fox News that oil tanker crews should “show some guts” and sail through the Strait of Hormuz.

Some military advisers did warn before the war that Iran could launch an aggressive campaign in response, and would view the U.S.-Israeli attack as a threat to its existence. But other advisers remained confident that killing Iran’s senior leadership would lead to more pragmatic leaders taking over who might bring an end to the war.

When Mr. Trump was briefed about risks that oil prices could rise in the event of war, he acknowledged the possibility but downplayed it as a short-term concern that should not overshadow the mission to decapitate the Iranian regime. He directed Mr. Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to work on developing options for a potential spike in prices.

But the president did not speak publicly about these options — including political risk insurance backed by the U.S. government, and the potential of U.S. Navy escorts — until more than 48 hours after the conflict started. The escorts have not yet taken place.

Mr. Wright, the energy secretary, caused a market commotion Tuesday when he posted on social media that the Navy had successfully escorted an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz. His post drove up stocks and reassured oil markets. Then, when he deleted the post after administration officials said no escorts had taken place, markets were once again thrust into turmoil.

Efforts to resume shipments have been complicated by intelligence that Iran was preparing to lay mines in the strait, one U.S. official said. The Iranian operation was only in its earliest stages, but the preparatory efforts spooked the Trump administration. The U.S. military said on Tuesday evening that its forces had attacked 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait.

As the conflict has roiled global markets, Republicans in Washington have grown concerned about rising oil prices damaging their efforts to sell an economic agenda to voters ahead of the midterm elections. 

Mr. Trump, both publicly and privately, has been arguing that Venezuelan oil could help solve any shocks coming from the Iran war. The administration announced on Tuesday a new refinery in Texas that officials said could help increase oil supply, ensuring that Iran does not cause any long-term damage to oil markets.

A Potential Off-Ramp

The confidence that White House officials had that the shipping lanes could stay open is surprising given that Mr. Trump authorized a military campaign last year against the Houthis, a Yemeni group backed by Iran, that had used missile and drone attacks to bring maritime commerce in the Red Sea to a halt.

In a social media post last March announcing he had authorized military strikes against the Houthis, Mr. Trump said that the attacks had cost the global economy billions of dollars, and that “no terrorist force will stop American commercial and naval vessels from freely sailing the Waterways of the World.”

But since the start of the war in Iran, Mr. Trump has not offered a consistent message. In private, his aides have said they feel frustration over his lack of discipline in communicating the objectives of the military campaign to the public.

Mr. Trump has said both that the war could go on for more than a month and that it was “very complete, pretty much.” He also said the United States would “go forward more determined than ever.”

Mr. Rubio and Mr. Hegseth, however, appear to have coordinated their messaging for now on three discrete goals that they began laying out in public remarks on Monday and Tuesday.

“The goals of this mission are clear,” Mr. Rubio said at a State Department event on Monday before Mr. Trump held his own news conference. “It is to destroy the ability of this regime to launch missiles, both by destroying their missiles and their launchers; destroy the factories that make these missiles; and destroy their navy.”

The State Department even laid out the three goals in bullet-point fashion, and highlighted a video clip of Mr. Rubio stating them on an official social media account.

The presentation by Mr. Rubio, who is also the White House national security adviser, appeared to be setting the stage for the president to bring an end to the war sooner rather than later. In his news conference, Mr. Trump boasted of how the U.S. military had already destroyed Iran’s ballistic missile capability and its navy. But he also warned of even more aggressive action if Iranian leaders tried to cut off the world’s energy supply.

Matthew Pottinger, who was a deputy national security adviser in the first Trump administration, said in an interview that Mr. Trump had indicated he could decide to pursue ambitious war goals that would take weeks at least.

“In his press conference, I could hear him circling back to a rationale for fighting a bit longer given that the regime is still signaling it won’t be deterred and is still trying to control the Strait of Hormuz,” said Mr. Pottinger, now the chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a group that advocates a close U.S. partnership with Israel and confrontation with Iran.

“He doesn’t want to have to fight a ‘sequel’ war,” Mr. Pottinger added.

The search for pathways out of the war has gained urgency since the weekend, as global oil prices surge and as the United States burns through costly munitions. Pentagon officials said in recent closed-door briefings on Capitol Hill that the military used up $5.6 billion of munitions in the first two days of the war alone, according to three congressional officials. That is a far larger amount and munitions burn rate than had been publicly disclosed. The Washington Post reported on the figure on Monday.

Iranian officials have remained defiant, saying they will use their leverage over the world’s oil supply to force the United States and Israel to blink.

“Strait of Hormuz will either be a Strait of peace and prosperity for all,” Ali Larijani, Iran’s top national security official, said in a social media post on Tuesday. “Or it will be a Strait of defeat and suffering for warmongers.”

Reporting was contributed by Julian E. Barnes, Michael Crowley, Eric Schmittand Catie Edmondson.

Mark Mazzetti is an investigative reporter based in Washington, D.C., focusing on national security, intelligence, and foreign affairs. He has written a book about the C.I.A.

Tyler Pager is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.

Edward Wong reports on global affairs, U.S. foreign policy and the State Department for The Times.“

How Trump’s War With Iran Changed the World in a Week

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“President Trump’s war with Iran, now nearly two weeks old, is reshaping global security and the economy. The conflict has disrupted travel patterns, energy dependencies, and trade routes, impacting countries like Cyprus and the UAE. Rising oil prices and potential stagflation pose risks to the global economy, while the war’s political implications could affect the upcoming US midterm elections and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

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The conflict is reshaping travel patterns, energy dependencies, living costs, trade routes and diplomatic alliances.

March 11, 2026Updated 5:44 a.m. ET

Smoke rising from oil storage in Tehran on Sunday.Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times

By Jim Tankersley

Reporting from Berlin, Washington and London’s Heathrow Airport

Since President Trump launched a new war with Iran, he has portrayed it as a shock-and-awe assault with few lasting consequences, especially for Americans. On Monday in Florida, he called it a “brief disruption.”

Experts say it is rapidly becoming something else entirely: a jolt to the global security order and economy that far exceeds those delivered by other recent conflicts in the Middle East.

Mr. Trump’s war, now nearly two weeks old, is already reshaping travel patterns, energy dependencies, living costs, trade routes and strategic partnerships. Countries typically shielded from regional conflict, like Cyprus and the United Arab Emirates, have faced retaliatory Iranian fire. The fallout could disrupt midterm elections in the United States, tilt the war calculus in Ukraine and force China into a major economic pivot.

Those effects may compound if Mr. Trump presses ahead with the war, particularly if Iran escalates its counterattacks and blocks ship traffic through the critical oil passage of the Strait of Hormuz. Some economists are already invoking a dreaded memory for any U.S. president — the specter of oil-shock-induced stagflation, with growth stalling and prices roaring upward.

“I’m old enough to remember the events of the ’70s, and a world in which oil price spikes were a significant issue both economically and for a president who might be facing elections,” said Suzanne Maloney, an Iran expert at the Brookings Institution. “That doesn’t seem to have been priced into the decision making,” she added.

The war is most immediately and viscerally affecting the Middle East. Attacks across the region have killed more than a thousand people and wrought extensive damage to critical infrastructure and the environment — unleashing plumes of noxious smoke and black rain over Tehran after Israeli strikes on fuel depots.

The conflict has shaken the foundation of the Persian Gulf economies, cracking their carefully cultivated images as safe havens in a turbulent region. Iran has launched more attacks on the Gulf countries than it has on Israel, according to an American war monitor, hitting five-star hotels, damaging desalination plants and sending tourists fleeing for evacuation routes.

Airports in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, have come under attack. European officials are still attempting to rescue their citizens who have been marooned in what once seemed like tranquil vacation spots. The U.S. State Department, after initially facing criticism for acting too slowly, said it had organized over two dozen charter flights and had evacuated thousands of Americans from the Middle East.

Experts warn that reputational damage will linger in the Gulf. Beyond the wealth those countries possess, “the real currency was confidence,” Emile Hokayem, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said in a panel discussion this week.

“It wasn’t just the money, it’s the fact that they could realistically tell people it’s a good business environment, you will feel safe,” he added. “We’re immune to regional politics. You can invest here. You can use us for your trade, your airlines, for your comms, your tech and so on. And that’s what the Iranians are after, right?”

For much of the rest of the world, one of the first pains from the war was felt at the gasoline pump. When tankers stopped moving through the Strait of Hormuz, oil prices jumped above $100 a barrel on global markets, though they have receded somewhat in recent days. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said on Monday that his country would send 10 warships to the region, potentially to escort vessels through the strait.

Trump administration officials and European leaders have explored options in recent days to reduce gasoline prices, which have risen along with the global price of oil. Economists have begun warning that if the oil shock persists for weeks, it could ignite an escalating set of price increases across economies, while weighing on economic growth — a fate similar to the stagflation that followed the 1979 Iranian revolution.

“Whether history repeats itself all depends on how long this conflict lasts,” researchers at Deutsche Bank wrote this week.

The loss of access to cheap oil is an emerging risk for China — and not the only one. Chinese exporters have become increasingly reliant on Middle Eastern consumers. A disruption to Middle Eastern economies could limit sales of Chinese goods there, undercutting China’s own growth.

The surge in oil prices are, conversely, helping Russia — by bolstering the oil revenues that help to fund Moscow’s war machine in Ukraine. Europeans are also worried that the heavy fighting in the Middle East will indirectly harm Ukrainian defenses: The more interceptor missiles are used by the United States and its allies to counter Iran, the fewer are available to Ukraine for its defense against Russian attacks.

In the United States, the war appears already to be a political liability for Mr. Trump. It has relatively little public support compared to previous wars. Democrats are seizing on rising energy costs to court voters ahead of midterm elections that were already focused on the rising cost of living.

More immediately, it has cast a shadow over an event Mr. Trump had hoped would be a signature American triumph under his presidency: the men’s soccer World Cup, which is set to kick off this summer in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Iran is one of the teams scheduled to compete. But it’s unclear if its team will be able to — and what might happen if it can’t.

Publicly, Mr. Trump has trumpeted the military might that the United States and Israel have poured into the war, while offering shifting explanations for what prompted the attacks on Iran and varying timelines for when it might end. He has acknowledged some costs of the war, including the American service members who have been killed since it began.

The president has largely dismissed other downsides, like oil price increases, as temporary. He has alarmed allies by offering few concrete plans for how Iran’s government will function after the war.

In Europe, that has raised concerns of a cratering Iranian economy that could eventually drive new waves of migrants across the Iran-Turkey border. For Europeans, that summons memories of the continent’s migration crisis a decade ago, when conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and Africa led more than a million people to seek refuge in Europe, leading to a right-wing backlash in countries like Germany.

“The United States and Israel have been waging war against Iran for over a week. We share many of their goals,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany on Tuesday. “But with each day of the war, more questions arise. We are particularly concerned that there appears to be no common plan for bringing this war to a swift and convincing conclusion.”

Lara Jakes contributed reporting from Rome, and Vivian Nereim from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Jim Tankersley is the Berlin bureau chief for The Times, leading coverage of Germany, Austria and Switzerland.“

Trump Claims Iran War Will End Soon, Suggests School Bombing Wasn’t U.S. & Hegseth Blows Billions - YouTube

 

Who would nominate a redneck fool like this for Secretary of Defense or any government job above a janitor? 

What a savage (Pete Hegseth)? 

Who would nominate a redneck fool like this for Secretary of Defense or any government job above a janitor?

• 41m
• Reply
• Edited

The The symbol tattooed on the man’s chest appears to be the Jerusalem Cross, sometimes called the “Crusader’s Cross.” It has a distinctive design:

• One large central cross

• Four smaller crosses placed in each quadrant around it

Historical Meaning

The Jerusalem Cross became widely known during the era of the Crusades in the Middle Ages. It was strongly associated with the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a Christian kingdom established in the Levant after the First Crusade in 1099.

Several interpretations of the design developed over time:

1. Christ and the Four Evangelists

• The large central cross represents Jesus Christ.

• The four smaller crosses symbolize the four Gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).

2. Christianity Spreading to the World

• The central cross represents Jerusalem as the spiritual center.

• The four smaller crosses symbolize the message of Christianity spreading to the four corners of the earth.

3. Five Wounds of Christ

Some Christian traditions interpret the five crosses collectively as representing the five wounds of Christ from the crucifixion.

Connection to Georgia

Another important association is with the modern national flag of Georgia. The Georgian flag features a similar arrangement—one large cross with four smaller crosses. Because of this, the symbol is sometimes used to express:

• Georgian national identity

• Pride in Georgian heritage

• Affiliation with the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Several of the tattoos visible on his arms appear to be symbols that are commonly used in far-right or white supremacist subcultures. Because the image resolution is limited, one cannot be absolutely certain, but the designs strongly resemble known extremist iconography.

1. “Black Sun” Style Symbol (upper arm/shoulder area)

One tattoo appears similar to the Black Sun (Sonnenrad), a circular symbol composed of repeating radial segments.

• The design originated in Nazi Germany and was incorporated into decoration at Wewelsburg Castle, which the SS (Schutzstaffel) used as an ideological center.

• In the modern era it has been adopted by various neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups.

• It is often used as a substitute for banned Nazi imagery (such as the swastika) in some countries.

2. “Three Sevens” / Triskelion-Style Symbol

Another tattoo on the arm appears to resemble a three-armed swirling symbol similar to a Triskelion.

Historically the triskelion is an ancient Indo-European symbol that appears in many cultures, including:

• Ancient Greek art

• Celtic decorative motifs

• The flag of the Isle of Man

However, some modern extremist groups have appropriated variations of the triskelion, especially versions made with three “7-shapes,” which are sometimes used as coded symbols in white supremacist or neo-Nazi contexts.

3. American Flag Variant

The tattoo around the upper arm looks like a banded American flag (stars and stripes wrapped around the arm).

This type of tattoo is often used simply as a patriotic symbol in the United States. However, in combination with other extremist symbols it can sometimes appear in militant nationalist imagery.

Putting the Symbols Together

When the Jerusalem Cross on the chest is combined with symbols like the Black Sun or extremist triskelion variants, observers sometimes interpret the collection of imagery as referencing white nationalist or far-right ideology.

That said, tattoos can be ambiguous:

• Some symbols have ancient or religious origins unrelated to modern extremism.

• The exact design details matter a lot for interpretation.

• Only the individual himself could definitively explain his intended meaning.

If you want, I can also explain why these symbols often appear together in modern extremist tattoo culture and how researchers identify them.

  Trump Claims Iran War Will End Soon, Suggests School Bombing Wasn’t U.S. & Hegseth Blows Billions - YouTube