TEHRAN: Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has yet to appear in public since he took office in March, has met with security chief Mohsen Rezaei to discuss regional security and the Strait of Hormuz, his office said Tuesday.
Mojtaba was chosen in March to succeed his father and longtime ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on February 28 in central Tehran alongside senior military commanders, and was said to have been injured in the same attack.
He has only communicated through written messages since his appointment, some of them published in handwriting attributed to him.
During the meeting, the first publicly announced encounter between Rezaei and the leader, they discussed “strengthening bilateral relations with neighboring countries” and “safeguarding national and regional security through the management of the Strait of Hormuz,” Khamenei’s office said in a statement.
Khamenei “emphasized the need to safeguard the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and the resistance front by adhering to the conditions set by the country’s authorities, with the aim of ending the war and the state of neither war nor peace,” it added.
Their meeting was announced a day after Rezaei held talks with senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and Pakistan — countries which recently signed the mutual defense Makkah Pact.
Neither the date nor the location of the meeting was disclosed.
Iran claims control over the Hormuz strait and regularly targets vessels that attempt to cross without its authorization, while the United States has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports.
Diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis remain stalled, especially since the collapse of a June deal which laid out a pathway to a permanent settlement.
Several Iranian officials, including Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, have in recent days said they held rare meetings with the supreme leader.