Iran’s supreme leader appears in public
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday made his first public appearance since the 12-day war between Israel and Iran began, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashoura.
Khamenei’s absence during the war suggested heavy security for the Iranian leader.
State TV in Iran showed him waving and nodding to the chanting crowd, which rose to its feet as he entered and sat at a mosque next to his office and residence in Tehran. There was no immediate report on any public statement made.
Iranian officials such as the Parliament speaker were present. The 86-year-old Khamenei had spent the war in a bunker as threats to his life escalated.
After the United States inserted itself into the war by bombing three key nuclear sites in Iran, US President Donald Trump sent warnings that the United States knew where he was but had no plans to kill him, “at least for now.”
