Irans supreme leader disfigured and on the run

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth claimed Iran’s new supreme leader is scared, injured and on the run after he was wounded in the initial strikes from the U.S. and Israel that sparked the Iran battle.

Speaking during a press briefing on Friday morning at the Pentagon, Hegseth detailed the state of the Iranian regime, claiming the nation’s management is “desperate and hiding” and has “gone underground, cowering.”

“Iran’s leadership is in no better shape. Desperate and hiding, they’ve gone underground, cowering,” Hegseth said. “That’s what rats do.”

He went on to slam the nation’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the initial strikes of the battle, which also killed Mojtaba’s spouse.

“We know the new so-called not-so-supreme leader is wounded and likely disfigured,” Hegseth said.

“He put out a statement yesterday — a weak one, actually — but there was no voice, and there was no video,” he continued. “It was a written statement. He called for unity. Apparently, killing tens of thousands of protesters is his kind of unity.”

“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why. His father? Dead,” he added. “He’s scared, he’s injured, he’s on the run, and he lacks legitimacy.”

Hegseth went on to call the state of affairs a “mess” for Iran as he questioned who is in charge of the nation.

“Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know,” Hegseth said. “With every passing hour, we know — and we know they know — that the military capabilities of their evil regime are crumbling. They can barely communicate, let alone coordinate. They’re confused, and we know it.”

Hegseth’s feedback got here after the Pentagon banned photographers from his briefings, not allowing any to {photograph} him during his last two briefings on the Iran battle. He never explained why he modified the longstanding coverage.

The Defense Department under Hegseth has had a contentious relationship with the news media assigned to cowl him, with most mainstream news organizations having either left their desks at the Pentagon moderately than accepting new Trump administration guidelines that prohibit their actions and who they’re allowed to converse with.

Those news media organizations have been changed at the Pentagon by a newly constituted press corps, which has agreed to the guidelines and which, to a large extent, work for shops that are supportive of President Donald Trump.

The Pentagon has been giving passes to reporters who vacated their Pentagon desks so they’ll attend Hegseth’s briefings on the battle. Hegseth, however, very sometimes acknowledges those legacy news reporters — though he did call on Eric Schmitt of The New York Times on Tuesday.

Hegseth is still permitting video cameras at his briefings, too.

The Times sued the Trump administration to overturn Hegseth’s guidelines, and a listening to was held before U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman last week.

“As The Times has long said, there is a clear importance and public service to allowing journalists to report fully on the U.S. military,” Charles Stadtlander, spokesman for the newspaper, said, according to The Associated Press. “This includes photojournalists, who deserve access and credentialing to attend Pentagon briefings.”

The Times’ battle coverage has drawn the consideration of White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said on Tuesday that the administration was not going to be “harassed” by The Times about an investigation into the bombing of a ladies’ faculty in Iran. That strike killed an estimated 175 people, most of them school-aged youngsters.

Leavitt said Trump would settle for the conclusion of the Defense Department’s investigation into who was accountable for the bombing.

“We’re not going to be harassed by The New York Times, who’ve been putting out a lot of articles on this, making claims that have just not been verified by the Department of War, to quickly wrap up this investigation because The New York Times is calling on us to do so,” she said.

The Times reported on Wednesday that the preliminary discovering of the administration concluded that the U.S. was accountable for the bombing.

The navy believes outdated data was relied upon when setting a goal for the Tomahawk missile used in the assault, according to the report.