IRAN has been blasted for using AI to edit images of new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei as rumours swirl around his ill health.
Khamenei hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since he was named as the Ayatollah, with The Sun revealing on Thursday that he may be in a coma.
Investigations are now ongoing into an image posted of Khamenei after experts said it shows clear signs of AI-manipulation.
It comes as…
Iranian state media has frequently been using a portrait of its new leader, appearing to suggest it is new.
The picture is even Khamenei’s official profile photo on his newly created X account.
But Shayan Sardarizadeh, a senior journalist at BBC Verify, says the image has been manipulated using AI tools and is actually a few years old.
Sardarizadeh stated: “Google’s SynthID finds watermarks in it that indicate it has been edited using Google AI.”
The original picture is actually from a pro-government rally in Tehran, it is believed.
In its unedited form, Khamenei can be seen standing among several people marching through the streets of the capital.
The newly released version shows him alone standing with a sunny background in what appears to be a park.
If true, it means there remains no new images or footage of Khamenei since his appointment as Supreme Leader.
It comes after The Sun revealed Mojtaba was critically wounded in an airstrike – leaving him in a coma and missing a leg.
His first public statement damning his enemies and pledging to fight on was released on Thursday – but was not delivered in person on TV or even in a video recording.
The fanatical Islamist regime instead had a female presenter read out his words on state TV.
The statement pledged “we will be victorious” and repeated claims that Iran was only targeting American bases in surrounding countries.
It read: “We send a message to the leaders of the region and emphasise that we are going to have good relations with the countries around us.
“But the existence of the US bases in some of these countries and usage of those bases to attack Iran is not benefiting the region and they must be closed.
“As we said, we are not an enemy of the countries around us, and we are only targeting the bases of those Americans.
“The cleverness of our people has surprised the enemy.”
The Khamenei statement also vowed “rivers would run with blood” and it would “avenge the blood of Iranian martyrs”.
He pledged special retaliation for a missile strike on a school in Minab where a US Tomahawk killed 168 people, including around 110 children.
Khamenei’s statement also vowed to keep the vital Strait of Hormuz oil waterway shut to vessels supplying Iran’s western enemies and promised revenge.
The statement added: “Crimes will not be ignored.
“The crime against humanity and against the children… will not be ignored.”
It was unclear whether Mojtaba was injured on the same day his 86-year-old father died – February 28 – but sources say he is not directing the war currently.
An Israeli government source told The Sun: “It is absolutely irrefutable that Mojtaba Khamenei has been wounded.
“But his condition actually has little bearing on the course of the war as he is a puppet put in place by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“They hold the power now and they are running Iran.”
Who is the new Ayatollah?
MOJTABA Khamenei, 56, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was chosen as the regime’s next dictator
Mojtaba was selected as the primary candidate to succeed his own dad following two Assembly of Experts meetings in Iran.
He is understood to be a hardline conservative cleric who advocated for developing nuclear bombs and who has strong links to Iran’s brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Mojtaba owns luxury pads in the UK worth more than £100million, including 11 homes in Bishop’s Avenue – nicknamed Billionaire’s Row – according to Bloomberg.
He is believed to control a sprawling investment empire across Tehran, Dubai and Frankfurt – and has reportedly stashed cash away in Swiss bank accounts.
Before his dad’s assassination, he taught at the country’s largest seminary in Qom – having been previously educated by an extreme cleric known as the “Crocodile Ayatollah”.
Mojtaba, who reportedly has “a bleak human rights record”, has helped suppress domestic protests and also served in the Iran–Iraq War.
He was previously predicted as next Supreme Leader – with a Middle East Institute report in 2022 saying “there is no doubt that Mojtaba wants to be supreme leader”.
