Frail and reportedly suffering from cancer, Iran’s supreme leader delivers Newroz message
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Looking frail and reportedly suffering from prostate cancer, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivered a message to his nation on the Iranian New Year, repeatedly looking down and pausing to read from notes.
“In my estimation, the issue of the economy is the top priority,” the 75-year-old told the nation, looking down at notes nearly after every sentence.
“A resistance economy is the key to resolution of Iran’s economic problems,” he reiterated, a message the leader has reinforced since the lifting of US and Western sanctions on Iran last year, in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Sitting in a chair, the disabled right arm he lost in a 1981 bomb attack unmoving, reading from notes held in his left hand and wearing the black turban of a cleric that signifies ancestral descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, Khamenei said that self-reliance was the key to a bright future.
“We need to make ourselves invulnerable to threats by the enemies and reduce (our) vulnerability to zero,” he said in the televised message.
Khamenei, who underwent surgery on his prostate in September 2014, is reported to be suffering from cancer. In a rare instance after the surgery, Iran’s state TV showed the frail leader recovering in hospital from an operation on his prostate.
In December last year Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential member of the Assembly of Experts that chooses the supreme leader, gave the most obvious indication that Khamenei may be dying: he disclosed for the first time that discussions were underway to choose a successor to Khamenei.
Citing intelligence sources, the French daily Le Figaro said last year that Khamenei is likely to live only for two more years.
In 2007, after rumors of his illness or death began to circulate when Khamenei disappeared from public view for several weeks, he issued a statement saying: “Enemies of the Islamic system fabricated various rumors about death and health to demoralize the Iranian nation.”
“In my estimation, the issue of the economy is the top priority,” the 75-year-old told the nation, looking down at notes nearly after every sentence.
“A resistance economy is the key to resolution of Iran’s economic problems,” he reiterated, a message the leader has reinforced since the lifting of US and Western sanctions on Iran last year, in exchange for curbs on Tehran’s nuclear program.
Sitting in a chair, the disabled right arm he lost in a 1981 bomb attack unmoving, reading from notes held in his left hand and wearing the black turban of a cleric that signifies ancestral descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammad, Khamenei said that self-reliance was the key to a bright future.
“We need to make ourselves invulnerable to threats by the enemies and reduce (our) vulnerability to zero,” he said in the televised message.
Khamenei, who underwent surgery on his prostate in September 2014, is reported to be suffering from cancer. In a rare instance after the surgery, Iran’s state TV showed the frail leader recovering in hospital from an operation on his prostate.
In December last year Hashemi Rafsanjani, an influential member of the Assembly of Experts that chooses the supreme leader, gave the most obvious indication that Khamenei may be dying: he disclosed for the first time that discussions were underway to choose a successor to Khamenei.
Citing intelligence sources, the French daily Le Figaro said last year that Khamenei is likely to live only for two more years.
In 2007, after rumors of his illness or death began to circulate when Khamenei disappeared from public view for several weeks, he issued a statement saying: “Enemies of the Islamic system fabricated various rumors about death and health to demoralize the Iranian nation.”