Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is unconscious and being treated for a “severe” medical issue, rendering him unable to govern the country, according to an intelligence assessment obtained by The Times British news outlet on Tuesday.
“Mojtaba Khamenei is being treated in [the Iranian city of] Qom in a severe condition, unable to be involved in any decision-making by the regime,” read a diplomatic memo, which The Times said is based on US-Israeli intelligence and shared with their Gulf allies.
It marked the first time a report has revealed Khamenei’s location publicly since the beginning of the war. He is believed to have been wounded in the opening wave of US-Israeli strikes on February 28.
The document also revealed preparations for the burial of his father and former supreme leader Ali Khamenei in Qom — considered a holy city in Shi’ite Islam — after he was killed in the same strikes that launched the fighting.
Intelligence agencies surmised preparations were underway to lay the “groundworks needed to build a large mausoleum in Qom,” south of Tehran for “more than one grave,” the memo read.