Mojtaba Khamenei appears in undated video amid health speculation

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency released a video of Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei on 8 August 2026. The footage, which carries no date or location, shows Khamenei giving a religious lesson to a group of people. It was published after reports circulated about his critical health and Israeli media claims that he had been hospitalised.

Khamenei became Iran’s Supreme Leader in early March 2026, following the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, in joint US-Israel attacks on 28 February. Since then, he has not appeared in public. State media have carried only written statements attributed to him. The video released on 8 August is the first visual record of him since his appointment.

The video’s release follows days of speculation about Khamenei’s health. Israeli media reported that he was in critical condition and had been rushed to hospital. Mehr’s video shows him speaking and moving without visible difficulty, but the agency did not explain why the footage was released now or when it was recorded.

Disagreements in the reports

The reports disagree on whether the video was recorded before or after the 28 February attacks. ANSA states the video "seems to have been shot before the war". Xinhua does not address the timing. The other reports do not mention the question.

What the coverage left out

None of the right-rated digests mention that the video appears to have been recorded before the 28 February attacks, as reported by ANSA. The left-rated report from Xinhua does not address the timing of the video. The centre-rated reports from ANSA and Hindustan Times do not include President Pezeshkian’s statement about the difficulty of interacting with Khamenei.