Silent Battle Is On In Iran

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is ill.

The story is so beautiful that I can't help but share it. Since Saturday, word has been spreading that Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei is ill.

The source was The New York Times - it was a paragraph inside an article that talked about Iran's dilemma - whether he will respond or not. Well here it was being reported that Khamenei was ill, this complicates the situation given that there's a silent battle underway in Iran over who will succeed Khamenei.

Every other media outlet sees the NYT and brings Khamenei's illness into the headlines. The Jerusalem Post, for example. Colleagues asked me to comment on this news and sent me a link to the Jerusalem Post. However, for some reason I decided to read more and went to the NYT. I went to the article that Google gave me on the request - Khamenei is seriously ill The New York Times.

I read. I see a paragraph:

Complicating matters, a silent battle has broken out over the right to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei, who is 85 years old. After the resignation (death) of Mr Raisi, there was an internal concern about the possibility that Ayatollah Khamenei's second son, Mojtaba, who is 55, could succeed him. The powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps will have an important say and is seen as more ready to confront Israel.

Not a word about the illness. I finish reading to the end. I see a small note:

‘A correction (in the article) was made on October 27, 2024: The earlier version of this article incorrectly reported on what is known about the current state of health of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He was ill in 2022.’

Case closed. Khamenei is not ill. Or at least nothing is known about it. And in September 2022, there were indeed reports of illness and the same NYT wrote that Khamenei had cancelled all meetings and public appearances and was on bed rest under the care of a medical team following surgery for an intestinal obstruction.

On the other hand, essentially nothing changes in the NYT article. In Iran, regardless of the illness, the question of Khamenei's successor is indeed on the table. The old man's grandfather is, after all, now 85. And indeed there is a silent struggle for the post and Khamenei's son Mojtaba is one of the candidates, but we can hardly predict the outcome of this battle. Ayatollah Khamenei has already survived several candidates to succeed him. But the situation is not predictable - anything can happen at any moment.

And the case of how the news is spreading is an interesting one. And it happens to everyone. It's just that it's harder to refute the news than to write it. And then you have to go prove that two plus two isn't five.

Marianna Belenkaya, Telegram

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