Since February 28, 2026, the Islamic Republic has been governed — on paper — by a supreme leader no one has seen.

Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed on March 8. His first statement was read by a state television anchor. At his inauguration, a cardboard cutout stood in his place. President Trump: “Nobody’s seen him. We don’t know if he’s dead or not.”

It is now June. Nothing has changed. No video. No audio. No appearance. Statements issued in his name. A 14-point memorandum of understanding, signed today at Versailles, concluded in his name. Mojtaba Khamenei: still absent.

The comparison to Osama bin Laden does not hold.

Bin Laden led a non-state organization. Concealment was operationally logical. He had no state functions, no foreign counterparts to receive, no constitutional obligations.

A supreme leader of an 80-million-person state has all of these. The Islamic Republic’s system assigns him final authority over military operations, nuclear policy, IRGC command, and treaty ratification. These cannot be delegated to a ghost. There is no precedent in modern statecraft for a head of state who vanishes at the moment of appointment and remains invisible through four months of active war culminating in today’s signed memorandum of understanding.

The facts permit exactly two explanations.

First: Mojtaba Khamenei is dead. Sources familiar with the situation indicate this possibility — that injuries sustained on February 28 were fatal, and that the regime has chosen fiction over disclosure.

The evidence is........

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