U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday (August 27, 2026) said he believes Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since taking over after his father’s killing in February, remains alive.

“I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded. But I don’t think he’s dead,” Mr. Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck.

Officially, Mr. Khamenei continues to lead his country under U.S. and Israeli attack. However, his public absence and the rise to power of veteran Revolutionary Guards figures has fuelled speculation that he is either dead or not fully in command.

His father was killed in bombing at the start of the U.S.-Israeli assault.

Mr. Trump — who has already declared victory over Iran on multiple occasions but remains unable to force the opening of the Hormuz sea route or force Iran to surrender its nuclear materials — said again that military and economic pressure was working.

“Those things are going toward a very big victory,” he said. “We’re going to have a big victory here very soon.”

Mr. Trump also insisted that the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s military has disrupted and to a large extent blocked shipping, is in fact fully open.

“You could really say, you know, because the Strait is open. We take a lot of ships through the Strait now. We’re taking them in. The mines are gone,” he said.

“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s what it’s all about. That’s 99.9 percent. We cannot let them because they are crazy and they will use it,” he said, before adding that he had already “stopped it twice.”

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei in his latest written message said that the Islamic republic does not want war with the United States and Israel, but would protect its rights as a nation, state television reported Thursday (April 9, 2026).

“We did not seek war and we do not want it,” he said in the message read out on state TV, coinciding with 40 days since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on February 28, the first day of the war.

“But we will not renounce our legitimate rights under any circumstances, and in this respect, we consider the entire resistance front as a whole,” he added, in an apparent reference to Lebanon where Israel is fighting a war with Tehran’s ally Hezbollah.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on ​Monday (March 30, 2026) said he wanted ‌more certainty from U.S. President ​Donald Trump on ⁠the objectives of the ongoing war West Asia.

Iran-Israel war LIVE update on March 30, 2026

“I want to ‌see more certainty in what the objectives ‌of the war are ‌, and ⁠I want to ⁠see a de-escalation,” Mr. Albanese said, responding to a question about his ​view on ‌how Mr. Trump was prosecuting the war.

An initial Israeli strike on February 28 ‌killed Iran’s Supreme Leader ​Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was replaced by ⁠his son Mojtaba.

The war has spread across the ‌Middle East, killing thousands, causing the biggest disruption ever to energy supplies and hitting the global economy.

Australia has provided ‌aircraft to assist with the ​defence of the United Arab Emirates after a ⁠request from the country, but has ⁠ruled out sending naval ships to ‌assist in reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

The United States is offering a reward ‌of up to $10 million for information about senior Iranian military ​and intelligence officials, including its new Supreme Leader Ayatollah ⁠Mojtaba Khamenei.

The reward targets 10 officials associated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the State Department website.

Iran-Israel war LIVE

The military force, created after Iran’s 1979 ‌Islamic Revolution, is loyal to the supreme leader and tasked with protecting the Shi’ite clerical establishment. Mojtaba Khamenei recently ‌succeeded his father, Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s supreme leader after ‌the ⁠elder Khamenei was killed along with several other top ⁠Iranian officials in joint U.S. and Israeli strikes that began on February 28.

The younger Khamenei, believed to have been injured in the strikes, hasn’t been seen publicly ​since, although he released his ‌first statement on Thursday (March 12, 2026).

In addition to the supreme leader, the U.S. is seeking information about Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib, Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni and two officials in Khamenei’s ‌office.

Mr. Larijani appeared on Friday (March 13, 2026) in videos verified by Reuters alongside President ​Masoud Pezeshkian and Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attending a rally in Tehran, despite an assertion by U.S. Defense ⁠Secretary Pete Hegseth that Iran’s leadership was “cowering” underground.

The reward website also lists four other officials, including the IRGC commander and secretary of ‌the defense council, but doesn’t include their names or photos. “These individuals command and direct various elements of the IRGC, which plans, organizes, and executes terrorism around the world,” the State Department said.

The Revolutionary Guards could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday (March 13, 2026) — the weekly day of rest in Iran. Iran’s mission to the United ‌Nations in New York didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The U.S. ​has designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organisation, accusing it of being responsible for attacks that have killed ⁠U.S. citizens. Washington has also accused Iran of orchestrating assassination plots against ⁠President Donald Trump and other U.S. officials in retaliation for the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani in ‌2020.

Iran denies being a sponsor of terrorism. Iranian officials routinely dismiss U.S. terrorism allegations as baseless political attacks, arguing Washington raises ​such claims to justify pressure campaigns or sanctions.