Fact check: Viral video does not show Mojtaba Khamenei’s first appearance after becoming supreme leader; it’s old from 2020

After his assassination, Mojtaba rose to power as Iran’s third supreme leader., Mojtaba suffered a significant injury to one or both legs, and his face was disfigured in the attack that killed his father. Since the attack, there has been a lot of public speculation about his whereabouts and condition as well as his ability to rule.

No photo, video, or audio recording has been published on official Iranian platforms since the attack. How it started. On Monday, Russian state-controlled news networkRTshared avideoon X, allegedly showing Mojtaba making his first appearance after becoming supreme leader.

The caption of the post read: “Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in first-time-seen footage. Released publicly for the first time by Iranian media, footage shows him presiding over a religious academic study session.”The post gained 283,800 views.

Multiple Indian news outlets also shared the video in the same context, including. The Financial Express, BDN News 24, and. Times Now.

The samevideowas shared by Turkish news platformRTE Urduwith the following caption: “Iranian media outlet Fars News Agency has released a video of a meeting in which Iran’s current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei, was present as the strategic overseer.”The post accumulated 26,800 views. Similarly, Pakistani news channels24 News HDand.

Dawn Newsalso shared the same video with a similar claim. Several other social media users also shared the same video on X, Instagram, Linked. In, and Facebook, with similar captions, as seenhere, here, hereandhere.

MethodologyA fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in Mojtaba’s whereabouts. A keyword search was conducted to assess whether any credible international news outlets or official Iranian platforms had shared the video with a similar context that it was recent.

It led to avideoshared by an Iranian news agency, Young Journalist’s Club, which is affiliated with the. Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)state broadcaster, dated September 2, 2020, with the following headline: “A meeting where the revolutionary leader was the instructor.

A picture of Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei in the position of a supervisor has been published”.

Another Iranian news agency, Mashregh News, shared the samevideodated September 2, 2021, with the following headline: “A meeting where the revolutionary leader was the instructor.”A reverse image search conducted on the video’s keyframes yielded a post from an Iranian news outlet, Basij News, on the official website of.

Fars News Agency, dated August 24, 2026, with the following caption: “A meeting where the leader of the revolution served as the academic supervisor. This footage dates back to the period prior to his assuming the leadership.”, the video was shared recently, but it was old, from when Mojtaba was not the supreme leader.

Moreover, the video shared by local and Indian news outlets had also featured the watermark of. Fars News. Fact-check status.

The claim that a viral video shows Mojtaba Khamenei’s first appearance after becoming supreme leader is misleading. The clip is old from September 2, 2020, and shows him in an academic setting. This fact check wasoriginally publishedby i.

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