Tehran, Iran – Iran International has revealed details of a secret meeting it says took place between Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei inside a car with tinted windows at an undisclosed location in Tehran. This meeting reportedly occurred after repeated requests from the president and his threat to resign.
According to an exclusive report published by the network, Pezeshkian was transported to the location by his security team. He was then taken out of his car and seated in the back of a commercial vehicle, where Mojtaba Khamenei was apparently waiting for him.
The report added that the place was so dark that the two men could not see each other. Khamenei’s guards also prevented a handshake, so the conversation between them was limited to verbal exchanges.
Disagreement over the duration of the meeting
Iran International reported that the meeting lasted only a few minutes before the Iranian president was asked to leave. This contradicts earlier statements by Pezeshkian, who said he spent two and a half hours with the new Supreme Leader in a “friendly atmosphere.”
The network, citing its sources, reported that Khamenei’s office only agreed to the meeting after repeated demands from Pezeshkian and his threat to resign. Furthermore, the president was informed that he would not be received at the Supreme Leader’s usual residence, contrary to established protocol.
She noted that the manner in which the meeting was conducted angered Pezeshkian, who considered the treatment humiliating. She explained that he later questioned, in front of people in his office, whether the person sitting next to him was indeed the Iranian Supreme Leader, after hearing only his voice in the darkness.
The report did not clarify whether the president’s question was an expression of anger at the circumstances of the meeting, or whether it reflected genuine doubt about the identity of the person he met.
Request for a second meeting
The network reported that Pezeshkian then requested a second meeting with Mojtaba Khamenei, this time to be held at the Supreme Leader’s residence. However, the request has not yet been approved.
The details of the meeting were revealed amid Mojtaba Khamenei’s absence from public view. The report stated that no audio or video recordings of him have been released since his selection by the Assembly of Experts to succeed his father approximately five months ago.
Iran International quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi as saying in a July interview that he had not seen Mojtaba Khamenei during that period. According to the network, only a limited number of people were able to meet him.
In contrast, Pezeshkian had stated in a speech delivered a day after Araqchi’s remarks that the number of meetings with the Supreme Leader had increased. This, according to the network, reflects conflicting accounts from senior officials regarding his public appearances and official communications.
Frequent threats of resignation
The report linked the meeting to escalating tensions between the Iranian president and the Supreme Leader’s office, noting the circulation of a video clip of Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi, a relative of Khamenei’s family by marriage, in which he stated that the Supreme Leader warned Pezeshkian that his next threat to resign would be officially accepted.
According to Kharrazi, Pezeshkian made threats or attempts to resign 28 times, before he stopped repeating them after receiving the warning.
The network had previously reported that Pezeshkian sent an official letter to the Supreme Leader’s office in late May requesting to resign. He attributed his decision to what he described as the Revolutionary Guard’s complete control over the administration of the country’s affairs.
Iran International concluded that the Iranian president finds himself unable to resign. This comes at a time when the new Supreme Leader remains absent from the public eye, and Pezeshkian, according to the network’s account, has only met with him once, under secret and unusual circumstances.
