Tehran hospital destroyed in US air strike, Mojtaba Khamenei pulled from rubble

A startling report has emerged from Iran amid rising military tension and war-like conditions in the Middle East. Iran's new Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, narrowly survived a major American air strike. American and Israeli forces bombed a large hospital in Tehran, destroying a major part of the building, and Mojtaba Khamenei was trapped under the rubble. Rescue teams immediately launched a search operation and pulled him out safely. Mohsen Haidari, a member of Iran's powerful Assembly of Experts, made the sensitive disclosure in an interview to a television channel.

According to Haidari, the entire sequence of events began with initial air strikes in February. Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in those strikes and was immediately admitted to a major hospital in Tehran for treatment. But enemy intelligence agencies tracked down the location and bombed three major hospitals in Tehran one after another. The third hospital targeted was the same building where Mojtaba was being treated. The powerful blasts caused the hospital building to collapse like a house of cards, but emergency teams who reached in time managed to pull Mojtaba out of the rubble alive.

Amid this deadly attack and war-like conditions, the process of choosing Iran's new Supreme Leader was completed in extreme secrecy and under difficult circumstances. Haidari said the enemy had also carried out an air strike on the Assembly of Experts' main office in the city of Qom. The strike killed 8 members of the assembly and completely destroyed important government documents related to the election of the Supreme Leader. Despite this major crisis, the surviving members did not lose courage and decided to gather at a secret location.

With the office destroyed and no ballot papers available, all members wrote their choice on small slips of paper and cast a historic vote. Of the Assembly of Experts' 59 members in total, 50 voted in favour of Mojtaba Khamenei. The other candidate, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, received only 8 votes, while one member did not take part in the voting. For strict security reasons, the result of this election was not announced immediately on state television. The 56 year old Mojtaba did not hold any formal government post, but had for long served behind the scenes in a major role as the chief adviser to his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Meanwhile, various speculations are being made around the world regarding Mojtaba Khamenei's health and physical condition. Citing a report from American intelligence agencies, US President Donald Trump had claimed that Mojtaba was seriously injured in the attack, with the left side of his body, particularly his arm and leg, badly hurt. However, Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian has rejected all these claims. Pezeshkian made clear that Mojtaba Khamenei is completely fine and healthy, and that he had recently held a meeting lasting nearly seven hours on important decisions concerning the country. He is currently taking all major administrative and military decisions himself as Iran's Supreme Leader.