Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he believes Iran’s supreme leader is still alive, even though the cleric has stayed out of public view since taking over after his father was killed in February.
Speaking to conservative radio host Glenn Beck, the United States president said he did not think the leader was dead. He said the man had been very seriously wounded, describing injuries to the left side of his body, including the arm and the leg, but repeated that he did not believe those wounds had killed him.
Officially, Khamenei still leads the country while it faces American and Israeli attack. His long absence from public sight, and the growing power of veteran Revolutionary Guards figures, has fed talk that he is either dead or no longer fully in charge. His father died in a bombing at the start of the US Israeli assault.
Trump has already claimed victory over Iran more than once, yet he has not forced the Hormuz sea route fully open or compelled Tehran to give up its nuclear materials. He said military and economic pressure was still doing its job and that those efforts were moving toward a very big victory, which he expected soon.
He also insisted the Strait of Hormuz is in fact open. Iran’s military has disrupted shipping there and, to a large extent, blocked it, but Trump said a lot of ships are now being taken through, that they are being brought in, and that the mines are gone.
He said Iran must not be allowed a nuclear weapon, calling that the heart of the matter, almost the whole of it, because in his view they are crazy and would use it. He added that he had already stopped it twice, Zoyols News reports.
