This is John Batchelor. Conversation with Jonathan Sire, my colleague at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies.

Where is the Ayatollah? How is the Ayatollah? I learned from the White House that he's not been seen since the February 28th attack on Tehran.

There have been stories for some time now that he's injured, and the stories also include

the possibility that he is either deceased or is very poorly, very poorly. So Jonathan answers,

taking into account all those different possibilities, puzzling why we haven't seen him, puzzling

why they would choose someone who is injured if he is, where is the Ayatollah? And what does it mean that

we're not seeing him, though the regime, the colonels, the IRGC, the decision makers are carrying on as if they're

doing the work of the Ayatollah. Here's Jonathan. Mystery. Nothing. And that in itself speaks of volumes.

I am a bit surprised as to why they would deliberately choose a leader that is on the

verge of death or is heavily injured because that would be a really bad look for a regime

to lose a supreme leader. Then immediately, like a couple of months later, have to reannounce

how they actually lost another one.

But that said, maybe having him operate behind the shadows or not operate at all would be better because the IRGC can do whatever it wants and just claim that there's a Supreme Leader

that is backing some of these who's not even in existence.