“I don’t even think it was his message,” an Iranian woman in her 40s told the BBC after her country’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first official address in the form of a statement read out on state TV.
Having not seen him since he was named leader, some are now casting doubts on who is running the country.
“I feel like control of the country is in the hands of the IRGC [Islamic Revolution Guard Corps],” the woman, from Tehran, said.
Khamenei, through the conduit of a TV presenter, vowed in his statement on Thursday that Iran would keep the Strait of Hormuz closed to international shipping – choking the supply of a fifth of the world’s oil.
He also said that his government would “not forgo avenging the blood” of citizens killed since the war with the US and Israel began, saying retaliation so far represented only “a limited portion” of what was to come. He said had been made aware of his appointment as supreme leader via state TV.
But Khamenei has yet to be seen in-person – nor filmed or photographed – since being named as his father’s successor.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said, without providing evidence, that Khamenei had been “wounded and likely disfigured” in one of the first air strikes on Tehran that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei along with his wife and other son.
His lack of visibility was brought up by some of those who spoke to BBC Persian following the broadcast.