Mojtaba Khamenei escaped death by seconds – The Telegraph

Read the article in: FrançaisՀայերենRussian

Iran’s new supreme leader survived US and Israeli air strikes because he stepped outside for a walk in his garden minutes before his home was hit by missiles, according to a leaked audio obtained by The Telegraph.

The recording reveals that Mojtaba Khamenei was targeted in the same attack that killed his father Ali Khamenei and other members of the Iranian leadership, and his family. But he had gone outside “to do something” moments before Israeli Blue Sparrow ballistic missiles hit his residence at 9.32am local time on Feb 28.

The recording is attributed to Mazaher Hosseini, head of protocol for Ali Khamenei’s office, who delivers a statement to senior clerics and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and provides the first detailed account of what happened inside the supreme leader’s compound when it came under fire.

The Telegraph said the recording was leaked to it and has since been independently verified.

Hosseini revealed that Mojtaba Khamenei suffered an injury to his leg in the strikes, while his wife and son were killed instantly and his brother-in-law was decapitated, according to the report.

The body of Mohammad Shirazi, chief of Khamenei’s military bureau, was also “blown to pieces”. Only “a few kilos of flesh” could be used to identify him, Hosseini told the meeting, held on March 12 in Tehran’s Qolhak neighbourhood.

On Feb 28, Ali Khamenei and senior security officials were gathered for a meeting when missiles hit the compound. Mohammad Pakpour, the IRGC chief, Aziz Nasirzadeh, Iran’s defence minister, and Ali Khamenei were among those killed.

Mr Hosseini said in the recording: “God’s will was that Mojtaba had to go out to the yard to do something and then return.

“He was outside and was heading upstairs when they struck the building with a missile. His wife, Ms Haddad, was martyred instantly.”

Mr Hosseini said Mojtaba sustained only “a minor injury to his leg”.

According to Mr Hosseini, the strikes targeted multiple locations within the office complex simultaneously and appeared aimed at wiping out the entire Khamenei family.

Mojtaba was selected as supreme leader on March 9.

He has not been seen since the start of the war or since his election. His only message to his people came in the form of a written message read on state television.

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168: Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilya II has died

March: 17, 2026

Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia Ilya II has died. The patriarch Ilia IIdied in the clinic at the age of 93.

Earlier we reported that Patriarch Ilya II of Georgia is in the intensive care unit due to health problems and is connected to an artificial respiration device. According to the country’s health minister, the situation remains very difficult and worrying. The Patriarch of Georgia was taken to the hospital with internal bleeding.

The patriarchate of Ilia II is the longest in the history of the Georgian Orthodox Church. In 1977 since December 25, he has been the Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, as well as Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi, Metropolitan of Pitsunda, Sukhum and Abkhazia, and Georgian Orthodox Church leader

It’s a shame, they bought many people for a reward, made them servile and liars

March: 14, 2026

Only God’s mercy can sustain us. All this was readable a long time ago, the way of working was simple. It was clear from their behavior during the war that Armenia was not their homeland. They were bought, and now who will unmask them? They are bought head and foot, until their last breath. First of all, we are carriers of a specific nation, and being a specialist is not a reason to renounce the nation, let alone the motherland. The motherland is not to blame for anything, the state is to blame. We have a wonderful homeland and an ugly state. 168TVof « expressed such an opinion during the program director Artur Sahakyan.

“Not all of them agree with what they do, but one thing is that they do it. They cannot help it, they are under orders. We may have lost the gene of statehood, we just lost it. We hear that a thousand years ago we were deprived of statehood, and there was no other statehood except Cilicia. But no one cries over it. The loss of Artsakh will be written in the same way. People close loans, so what should they do? The only positive news is that everything came to the surface. “Nzhdeh gave us the plan for living in a state of war, which was then used by the Jews,” said the artist.

“They inject it with side conversations and false debates, and we accept that foreign blood. There is very little of our blood left. Is it in your heart to live in fear like this? All this transition is for the sake of money. There are many powerful people, but evil is aggressive and conspicuous. Perhaps this is the necessary amount of suffering that each of us will have to bear. Everything must come to an end one day, and yet, good is much stronger, although evil is also very cunning, very powerful. Lying is their specialty. A part of the heavenly kingdom is placed in all of us: conscience and soul,” Sahakyan noted.

Read also

  • WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH THIS MONEY, WHERE DID YOU GET THIS PROPERTY, YOU HAVE POVERTED HALF A MILLION PEOPLE? THIS MUST BE ENDED. Avetik Chalabyan
  • “The beautiful becomes impudent with lightning speed. These are “March 1” specialists, aren’t they? Arthur Sahakyan
  • They are trying to change our consciousness so that we call destroyers saviors. It is necessary to resist. Anush Sedrakyan

According to the director, they had eight years to come to their senses. “Who do we see converted?” They have the Herostratus syndrome, the important thing is that the names remain in history. Where does this hatred for your roots come from? It’s a terribly difficult situation, but by opposing them, one should not go crazy, one should find the balance. Theaters have become buildings for daily rent, what else is logic or aesthetics? Renting the theater stage for one day costs from 500 thousand to 1 million 300 thousand drams. At one time, they at least kept the formal side, but now they say, “What about our bonuses?”

“When they give a bonus, they buy you. That inferiority complex and servility is not only our disease, but the artist should be ashamed of being like that, he should be free and rebellious, not agree with anything.

An artist should always be an opponent, but they say that an opportunity has barely fallen into my hands, I should not lose it suddenly. You will lose, you will definitely lose, everything will end one day. Everything has become small. Look at the levels then and today. Let’s say, instead of de Gaulle, it is Macron today,” said Artur Sahakyan.

Details in the video




Kyrgyzstan and Armenia’s films shine at Umut Film Forum

KazInform, Kazakhstan
Mar 9 2026

The 13th International Film Forum of Young Filmmakers from CIS countries, Umut, took place in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, on March 4–7, showcasing 38 films alongside master classes and a pitching session for new projects, Qazinform  News Agency cites Kabar.

Seagulls over Calvary by Armenian director Lia Karapetyan won the Best Film Award in the international competition.

Nurlan Hasanli from Azerbaijan awarded the Best Director Prize for his Early Feelings.

In the national competition, Balyk (Fish) by Tolomush Zhanibekov won the Best Film Award, while Daniyar Abirov was named Best Director for Obonchu.

Following the pitching session, Kyrgyzfilm studio pledged support for the project You and I. Financial backing was also awarded to Accomplice, Ultrasound, and Gesture projects.

The festival highlighted both accomplished works and promising new projects, reinforcing Bishkek’s role as a hub for young filmmakers across the region.

Armenia, Azerbaijan offer congratulations to new Iranian Supreme Leader

Eurasianet
Mar 10 2026

Putin apparently trying to play peacemaker.

Mar 10, 2026

Intent on staying on Tehran’s good side, Armenia and Azerbaijan have both saluted the elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei to be Iran’s Supreme Leader. The congratulatory notes sent by Yerevan and Baku highlight the delicate geopolitical balance that both are trying to maintain amid the ongoing US-Israeli air campaign to cause the Islamic Republic’s collapse.

Both Armenia and Azerbaijan share a frontier with Iran. Meanwhile, both are heavily invested in developing a US-backed trade corridor, known as TRIPP or the Trump Route for International Peace and Prosperity. They are likewise striving to finalize a provisional peace deal brokered personally by President Donald Trump.

Under the circumstances, both Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev clearly hope that their proffered congratulations to Khamenei do not cause consternation in the White House. 

Aliyev’s message to the new Iranian Supreme leader was particularly solicitous. “I hope that together we will make further efforts to develop interstate relations in a spirit of mutual respect and trust, in accordance with the interests of our peoples,” Aliyev wrote, according to a transcript of his message published by his press service. 

The tone is understandable given that Azerbaijani-Iranian tension continues to run high following a March 5 Iranian drone strike on Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan. Since then, Azerbaijani officials have undertaken a variety of measures aimed at avoiding another attack.

So far, Pashinyan and Aliyev appear to have threaded a diplomatic needle, given that there has been no adverse reaction from Washington yet concerning their actions. At the same time, Trump told the administration-friendly television channel Fox News that he was generally “not happy” with the Khamenei’s selection.

Among Central Asian nations, only Tajikistan, a country that shares close cultural and linguistic ties with Iran, offered congratulations to Khamenei, who replaced his father after he was killed on the first day of the US-Israeli air war. 

Meanwhile, social media in Central Asia is abuzz with posts expressing concern that the toxic smoke caused by US-Israeli attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure may reach UzbekistanKazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The meteorological services of both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan have tried to tamp down social media-driven rumors about potential hazardous fallout from the war. For example, the Uzbek agency, Uzhydromet, dismissed the possibility of toxic rain reaching the country, adding that there has been no discernable impact on air quality caused by events in Iran.

Elsewhere, it appears that Russian leader Vladimir Putin is attempting to mediate an end to the warfare in Iran. A readout of a phone conversation released by the Kremlin revealed that Putin and Trump talked about the war and other issues for an hour on March 9.

“The Russian President put forward a number of considerations aimed at achieving a speedy political-diplomatic settlement of the Iranian conflict, taking into account, among other things, recent contacts held with leaders of the Persian Gulf states, with the President of Iran [Masoud] Pezeshkian, and with the heads of several other nations,” the Kremlin statement reads. It added that the two discussed the Ukraine war.

“The conversation was highly substantive and will undoubtedly be of practical significance for the future cooperation of the two countries across various spheres of international policy,” according to the Kremlin.

Trump described the conversation as “a very good talk.”


Turkish Press: Armenian FM to attend Antalya Diplomacy Forum on March 1

Feb 27 2024
Politics  |

Editor : Sanem Topal
2024-02-27 10:57:08 | Last update : 2024-02-27 11:20:53

Armenia's Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan is set to undertake a working visit to Antalya on March 1 to participate in the Antalya Diplomatic Forum, as announced by the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum, scheduled from March 1 to March 3, is an initiative led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Mirzoyan also attended the Forum in 2022.

Former Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced the closure of Türkiye's airspace to Armenian planes due to the opening of the "Nemesis Monument" in Yerevan in May 2023, despite normalization talks.

Later in September, the conflict in Karabakh erupted once again.

Now in its third iteration, the Antalya Diplomacy Forum will bring together heads of state and governments, ministers, diplomats, business leaders, academics, think-tank experts, as well as representatives from youth and media sectors for comprehensive discussions.

The central theme for this year's forum is "Advancing Diplomacy in Times of Turmoil." The aim is to provide a deep reflection and explore pathways toward peaceful resolutions amid the turbulent global landscape.

From ongoing conflicts and acts of terrorism to issues of irregular migration, the rise of xenophobia and Islamophobia, challenges posed by artificial intelligence, climate change, natural disasters, pandemics and widening socioeconomic disparities are going to be addressed.

Additionally, the erosion and loss of trust in the rules-based international order are concerning trends, affecting the predictability of the global operating environment for states.

Source: Newsroom

https://www.turkiyenewspaper.com/politics/19501

Armenia values development of friendly relations with Estonia – President Khachaturyan to Karis

 14:50,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 24, ARMENPRESS. President of Armenia Vahagn Khachaturyan has congratulated his Estonian counterpart Alar Karis on the country’s Independence Day.

“Armenia values the development of friendly relations with Estonia and is ready to take necessary steps for the expansion and strengthening of productive cooperation in areas of mutual interest,” Khachaturyan said in a letter addressed to President Karis. “I hope that our personal warm relationship will also contribute to the fulfillment of the agreements reached during my visit to Estonia last year, to the benefit of our peoples.”

Russian Foreign Ministry seeks clarifications from Armenia regarding the freezing of participation in the CSTO

 18:48,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. Russia expects comprehensive clarification from Armenia through bilateral channels regarding Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's statements about freezing Yerevan's participation in the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).

"We expect comprehensive clarification through bilateral channels regarding Nikol Pashinyan's statements concerning the freezing of Armenia's participation in the Collective Security Treaty and the organization itself," the Russian Foreign Ministry  has said.

France to continue developing defense cooperation with Armenia: Macron

 21:33,

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 21, ARMENPRESS. France will continue developing cooperation with Armenia in the field of defense.

French President Emmanuel Macron said this during a joint statement with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan for media representatives.

“We will continue to develop cooperation in the field of defense. France has given its consent to the supply of defense equipment and France will continue in the spirit of its commitment in this area, aiming to prevent any escalation,” Macron said.

He added that France also continues its humanitarian commitment to the refugees of Nagorno-Karabakh by providing 29 million euros in 2023.

According to him, France will decisively continue to support the development of relations between the European Union and Armenia.