WASHINGTON — President Trump was shocked to be taught final week that US intelligence signifies new Iranian Supreme Chief Mojtaba Khamenei could also be homosexual — and that his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, feared his suitability to rule the Islamic Republic for that purpose, The Submit can reveal.
Trump couldn’t include his shock and laughed aloud when he was briefed on the intel, in accordance with sources.
Others within the room additionally discovered it “hilarious” and joined the president’s response, whereas one senior intelligence official “has not stopped laughing about it for days,” stated one particular person accustomed to the briefing.
The surprising declare was described to The Submit by two intelligence neighborhood officers and a 3rd particular person near the White Home.
All three sources say the implausible-sounding allegation is considered as credible by US spy businesses, moderately than false info meant to undermine Khamenei, 56, who was chosen to exchange his lifeless father as supreme chief on March 8.
Two of the sources stated the intelligence indicated that Mojtaba, who earned the nickname “the facility behind the robes” whereas serving as his growing old dad’s gatekeeper, has had a long-term sexual relationship along with his childhood tutor.
The third supply stated the intelligence indicated the affair was with an individual who previously labored for the Khamenei household.
Mojtaba, who’s believed to have been wounded in the identical Feb. 28 airstrike that killed his father and different members of his household, has made “aggressive” sexual overtures to males caring for him, presumably whereas underneath the affect of heavy medicine, one in all The Submit’s sources stated.
US spy businesses would not have photographic proof of Mojtaba Khamenei’s alleged sexual attraction to males, however the sources insisted the tip is strong, with one saying it was “derived from one of the crucial protected sources that the federal government has.”
“The truth that this was elevated to the best of excessive ranges exhibits you there’s some confidence on this,” added a second supply.
Mojtaba’s purported sexual orientation had been whispered about inside Iran since not less than the Could 2024 helicopter crash that killed then-president Ebrahim Raisi, Ali Khamenei’s presumed favourite to be the following supreme chief, sources stated.
Throughout the US authorities, “it’s been a reasonably carefully held piece of data,” one insider stated.
Trump beforehand dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a “light-weight” and an “unacceptable” option to run Iran. The brand new supreme chief is broadly thought-about to be somebody who wouldn’t bend to US calls for to desert the nuclear and ballistic missile applications that prompted Operation Epic Fury.
Some components of Mojtaba Khamenei’s intercourse life have been reported earlier than and should lend credence to the allegation.
A categorised US diplomatic cable from 2008, printed by WikiLeaks, described Mojtaba being handled within the UK for impotence, although that report didn’t determine what could have prompted the situation.
The State Division file says that Mojtaba married “comparatively late in life”– round age 30 — “reportedly as a consequence of an impotency downside handled and finally resolved throughout three prolonged visits to the UK, at Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals, London.”
“Mojtaba was anticipated by his household to supply youngsters rapidly, however wanted a fourth go to to the UK for medical therapy; after a keep of two months, his spouse turned pregnant,” the leaked file stated.
Mojtaba’s spouse, Zahra, and teenage son, Mohammad Bagher, reportedly died within the airstrike that killed his father. The brand new supreme chief has one other son and a daughter.
The allegation of homosexuality was alluded to in a CBS Information report on Sunday that stated the elder Khamanei, who had dominated Iran since 1989, most popular a special successor partially due to unspecified “points” in Mojtaba’s “private life.”
“His father and others suspected he was homosexual and that was one thing that folks had been spreading to attempt to cease his ascension,” one in all The Submit’s sources defined.
Gay conduct is prohibited in Iran, although the federal government does enable surgical intercourse change operations, which some homosexual males reportedly are pressured into present process to keep away from legal penalties.
Sodomy is a capital offense within the nation of 93 million folks, with some homosexual Iranians infamously hanged from building cranes as a warning to others.
“In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals,” former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who’s believed to be an ally of the youthful Khamenei, claimed in 2007.
Considered one of The Submit’s sources stated that though it’s typically frowned upon to out folks in opposition to their will, there’s a transparent case of hypocrisy to justify doing so in opposition to Mojtaba.
“If there was ever a time the place it was OK to out any individual, it might be when it’s a pacesetter of a repressive Islamic theocracy that hangs homosexual folks by cranes,” this particular person stated.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s present whereabouts and the standing of his restoration from the Feb. 28 airstrikes stay murky.
The White Home didn’t present remark for this text.
