‘I’ve never met supreme leader,’ says Iranian foreign minister

The foreign minister said Khamenei’s appointment as supreme leader was intended to signal continuity in Iran’s policies following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28.

This was despite the fact that the elder Khamenei had previously removed his son from the running, arguing that hereditary succession was a tradition linked with the pre-revolutionary monarchy under the Shah.

However, in the wake of his father’s death, Mojtaba was pushed through to the appointment as the preferred candidate of the IRGC, given his reported hardline politics and strict religious views.

His appointment is "a very important message to the world that there would be no change in the regime's policies and ideals," Araghchi said.

But his admission of never having met the new leader does little to quell reports that he was severely wounded, possibly fatally, in the strike that killed his father.

Since his ascent to power in March, he has not made any public appearances, communicating with his people only through written statements provided to state news agencies.

According to the Middle East Forum, Araghchi said during the same interview that "the regime would collapse if all members of the Supreme National Security Council are hit, which is why they never met at once during the war".

He added that Iran had long planned to close the Strait of Hormuz if the United States targeted the supreme leader.

“From the beginning, it had been agreed that, if the supreme leader had been a target, the strait would close,” Araghchi said.