Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared in public on Saturday for the first time since last month’s 12-day war with Israel, attending a mourning ceremony on the eve of Ashura at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosque. State television showed the 86-year-old cleric, dressed in black, waving to a packed hall of worshippers as senior officials, including the parliament speaker, looked on. He did not deliver any remarks and security around the venue was tight.
Khamenei’s re-emergence ends more than three weeks of seclusion that had fuelled speculation about his safety after Israeli air-strikes, backed by U.S. bombers, hit Iran’s Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear facilities on 22 June. Iranian authorities said the leader spent the conflict in a secure location, releasing only prerecorded messages—including one on 26 June in which he claimed Iran had dealt a “slap” to U.S. forces stationed in Qatar.
The war began on 13 June when Israel launched coordinated attacks on Iran’s nuclear and military sites. Tehran responded by firing more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory. Iran acknowledges that the fighting killed more than 900 people on its soil and wounded thousands; Israeli officials say 28 people were killed in Israel. A cease-fire brokered on 24 June has largely held.
Fallout from the brief conflict continues. Tehran last week suspended cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, further curbing access to its damaged enrichment programme. NetBlocks, an internet-monitoring group, reported a nationwide connectivity disruption shortly after Khamenei’s appearance, echoing outages imposed during the fighting.
