Supreme Leader
Iranian constitutional office with final authority over state policy, distinct from its officeholder.
Mojtaba Khamenei, installed as Supreme Leader on 7 March 2026, had still not appeared on audio or video by 10 August, when he signed six military decrees in one day and President Pezeshkian declared him in full health.
Last refreshed: 28 September 2026
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Timeline for Supreme Leader
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Iran Conflict 2026Background
The Supreme Leader is Iran's head of state and highest religious authority under the Islamic Republic's constitution, with final say over war, peace and strategic security agreements. Article 109 of the constitution sets the religious credentials the office requires, and questions over whether Mojtaba Khamenei met them shadowed his appointment in March 2026.
In August 2026 a Hormuz corridor draft approved by the foreign minister after eight rounds of talks could not bind Iran until The Supreme Leader signed off alongside the Supreme National Security Council. Analysts assessed in June that the leader's tacit approval, expressed through silence, left Parliament unable to veto the Islamabad memorandum.
The constitution provides no formal process for an incapacitated leader, which matters more when the holder is unseen: in June the US Secretary of State could say only that he was probably still alive.
An unseen leader governs by written decree
The office passed to Mojtaba Khamenei in March after his father, Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli strike on 28 February. Israeli and Arab outlets reported in April, without Independent confirmation, that he had undergone three leg operations and suffered facial burns. On 14 May state television attributed military directives to him by name for the first time, with no broadcast or authenticated voice behind them.
In July he skipped his father's Tehran state funeral, which opened on 4 July, and on 5 July Reuters sources said he had been disfigured and seriously injured in the leg. Iran's constitution has no formal process for an incapacitated Supreme Leader. On 10 August he signed six military decrees in one day, two of them formalising appointments already in effect.
Written rulings keep the uranium at home
On 21 May Mojtaba Khamenei ordered Iran's enriched uranium stockpile to stay in the country. On 18 June he issued a written statement endorsing the Islamabad memorandum while calling the United States the enemy, saying talks did not mean accepting its views, and handing accountability for the outcome to President Masoud Pezeshkian.
The same day he labelled full IAEA access and transfer of the stockpile "excessive demands". The memorandum commits Iran to destroying its 440.9 kg of 60% enriched uranium under IAEA supervision, by a mechanism still to be agreed, so the text requires what the office had just refused. That contradiction carried into the second phase of talks.
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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Updated 28 September 2026. Editorial standards.