Trump Claims 'Mojtaba Khamenei Is 90% Gone' As US Launches Fresh Strikes On Iran

Amid the ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran, US President Donald Trump on Monday claimed that Iran has lost much of its military capability and several of its top commanders in the recent US-Israeli strikes on the country.

He also alleged that Iran's Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been absent from public view since the funeral of his father, the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is "90 per cent gone." Trump did not elaborate on what he meant by the remark.

Trump also announced that the United States would reinstate a blockade on Iran and charge ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz for safe passage, prompting a sharp response from Tehran.

Earlier, in a post on Truth Social, Trump declared that the US would become the "Guardian of the Hormuz Strait." Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi rejected the proposal, asserting that Iran, not the United States, has historically safeguarded the strategic waterway.

"Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair," Araghchi wrote in a social media post.

"They have no navy, they have no air force, it's all gone. Their anti-aircraft is gone, their leaders have all been killed, their best leaders have been killed," Trump said during an interview with Fox News.

Trump further claimed that Iran's top leadership had been wiped out. "They're gone. Khomeini is gone," the president said, using the name of the late Iranian revolutionary leader who died in 1989, while apparently referring to Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war on February 28. "His son is 90 per cent gone," Trump added