Nearly six months after Mojtaba Khamenei was installed as Iran's third Supreme Leader, not one verified photograph, video clip or audio recording of him has surfaced — and now government insiders are telling American reporters he may already be dead.

Multiple sources inside Iran's bureaucracy said the 57-year-old cleric, who took the country's top office on March 8 after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, is either deceased or in a vegetative state. "I believe Mojtaba has either passed away or is brain-dead," one Tehran official said, a claim two other state employees reportedly corroborated to reporters. One official put the likely date of death or incapacitation in early August.

The elder Khamenei was killed on February 28 in a bombing campaign that also wiped out dozens of senior Iranian commanders and officials in a single day, triggering an unprecedented constitutional succession crisis. Mojtaba was elevated within roughly a week by Iran's Assembly of Experts, but has been described by people close to him as seriously wounded — injuries to his face and one or both legs, according to accounts relayed to NBC News. Iran's own president, Masoud Pezeshkian, has offered shifting accounts of his access to him, at one point admitting contact was "very difficult" before later claiming a seven-hour meeting.

Tehran insists he's fine

Iranian officials have pushed back hard. A relative of the Khamenei family dismissed the death rumors as "part of a psychological war," and a former interior ministry official said the leader remains "in full health." State media has aired footage purporting to show him, but outlets including The National reported the clips were undated or filmed before he took office. Public campaigns have circulated in Iran asking citizens to pray for his recovery, and even Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has reportedly not seen him in person since the appointment. Real authority, meanwhile, has drifted to a 13-member National Security Council and an IRGC-dominated inner circle, with veteran commander Mohsen Rezaee installed as the council's secretary this month.

"HE WAS VERY SERIOUSLY WOUNDED... BUT I DON'T THINK HE IS DEAD. AND IF HE IS, THEY ARE PUTTING ON A PRETTY GOOD SHOW, BECAUSE THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT GOING BACK TO TALK TO HIM ALL THE TIME TO GET A FINAL BLESSING ON THINGS." — PRESIDENT TRUMP, ON THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM

Trump, who has claimed credit for the February strikes that killed the elder Khamenei, addressed the rumors directly on Wednesday, saying he believed the younger Khamenei survived the attack that maimed him but doubted the leadership crisis was fabricated. Analysts note the ambiguity itself may be politically useful to Tehran: Iran International drew comparisons to Twelver Shia theology's "hidden imam" tradition, arguing that a leader who cannot be confirmed dead cannot be used to declare the Islamic Republic finished either.

What happens next remains genuinely unclear. No mechanism exists for Iran to quietly replace a Supreme Leader whose survival is disputed rather than confirmed, and mediators working toward a wider settlement with Washington say they still cannot identify who holds final decision-making authority in Tehran. Until Iran produces verifiable proof of life — or a funeral — the world's most opaque succession crisis looks set to continue.