Iran’s new supreme leader issued his first message Thursday through Iranian state media and did not appear on camera or read the statement — a move that reveals he was wounded, a CNN correspondent said.
CNN international reporter Nick Paton Walsh signaled that Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, could be seriously injured as a result of the U.S.-Israeli strikes that killed his father and left several of his other family members dead.
"It's what we didn't hear and what we didn't see," Paton Walsh said.
"We didn't hear much Mojtaba Khamenei's voice and we did not see his face and we did not see this statement delivered on video," Paton Walsh explained. "And while it's important to point out that we have no evidence that he is incapacitated or deceased, this was a key moment where Iran really, I think, had to meet the doubts as to his health and his capacity to govern. It's clear that he has been injured in some way the part of the speech he talked about the loss of his wife, his sister, those close around him and how he visited the body of his deceased father. This is the man who President Trump has said he does not want to lead Iran, and his appointment clearly a way of hard liners thumbing their nose ultimately back at the White House."
Mojtaba is not from a clerical background like his father and has not appeared on any video or in public view since the attack.
"We are hearing a big vacuum still at the top of Iranian leadership," Paton Walsh said. "Here's a message, seven chapters, read on state television by a female anchor, no sign of him, no sign of his voice and the moment for the proof of life that many need, or proof of health, not met."