Hegseth says Iran’s Khamenei Jr wounded, calls leaders 'rats' hiding underground
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was “wounded and likely disfigured” and that the country’s leadership was “desperate and hiding.”
“They’ve gone underground, cowering. That’s what rats do,” Hegseth said at a Pentagon briefing alongside the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Khamenei message questioned
Hegseth also cast doubt on a message attributed to Mojtaba Khamenei that was read on Iranian state television.
“He put out a statement yesterday, a weak one actually, but there was no voice and there was no video. It was a written statement,” Hegseth said.
“Iran has plenty of cameras and plenty of voice recorders. Why a written statement? I think you know why.”
He added that the situation inside Iran’s leadership was unclear. “Who’s in charge? Iran may not even know.”
Hegseth said the United States and Israel were dismantling Iran’s military capabilities at a pace “the world has never seen before.”
“Never before has a modern, capable military… been so quickly destroyed and made combat ineffective,” he said.
He said the combined air forces of the United States and Israel had struck more than 15,000 targets across Iran.
“The combination of the world’s two most powerful air forces is unprecedented and unbeatable,” Hegseth said.
Iran’s capabilities
Hegseth said Iran’s military had been severely degraded.
“Iran has no air defenses. Iran has no air force. Iran has no navy,” he said, adding that missile launches had dropped sharply and drone attacks had fallen by more than 90%.
Hegseth said the campaign was also destroying Iran’s ability to rebuild its arsenal.
“As of two days ago, Iran’s entire ballistic missile production capacity… has been functionally defeated,” he said.
“We’re shooting down and destroying what missiles they still have in stock, but more importantly ensuring that they have no ability to make more.”
Images released by Iranian state media showed several senior officials attending Quds Day rallies in Tehran on Friday.
Those seen in the footage included Atomic Energy Organization chief Mohammad Eslami, Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Larijani, police commander Ahmad-Reza Radan and Armed Forces Judicial Organization head Ahmadreza Pourkhaghan.
