Rubio says Mojtaba Khamenei alive and 'increasingly engaging'

WASHINGTON — U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was wounded in U.S.-Israeli attacks and has not been seen in public since assuming office, is alive and increasingly active. "I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, succeeded his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of U.S.-Israeli strikes that launched the war on February 28. Rubio was testifying in front of the Senate panel as talks on ending the three-month-old war that has engulfed the Middle East and triggered a global energy crisis have stalled. Rubio expressed hope for a deal with Iran, while insisting that Tehran must severely limit its nuclear program in order to see sanctions lifted. "There is the prospect before us, which could happen today, it could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week," Rubio said. Rubio said that Tehran must agree to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping channel for Gulf oil and gas. "They have to an

Original source: Korea Times