The Jerusalem Post Khamenei’s fantasy world: Speech shows a supreme leader detached from reality - analysis - ByALEX WINSTON JUNE 26, 2025 17:44 Updated: JUNE 26, 2025 19:01

 The Jerusalem Post 

Khamenei’s fantasy world: Speech shows a supreme leader detached from reality - analysis

In a video message released Thursday and social media posts on X, Khamenei congratulated the Iranian people on what he claimed was a “decisive victory” over the US and Israel.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks in a televised message, after the ceasefire between Iran and Israel, in Tehran, Iran, June 26, 2025.

(photo credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)

ByALEX WINSTON

JUNE 26, 2025 17:44

Updated: JUNE 26, 2025 19:01

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader for over three decades, finally emerged this week after barely showing his face during one of the most dramatic military confrontations in the Islamic Republic’s history. But instead of offering clarity, accountability, or even reassurance for his nation, Khamenei delivered something else entirely: delusion.

In a video message released Thursday and social media posts on X, Khamenei congratulated the Iranian people on what he claimed was a “decisive victory” over the United States and Israel during the 12-Day War.

According to the ayatollah, “the Zionist regime, under the blows of the Islamic Republic, has almost collapsed and been crushed,” while the US had “gained nothing” and received a “slap in the face.” In his mind, Iran had shown restraint, strength, and righteous domination.

But in the real world, Israel ruled Tehran’s skies, missiles were falling on Iranian soil, nuclear facilities were destroyed, senior IRGC leaders were killed, and Iran’s much-vaunted deterrence crumbled. A severe blow to the regime’s credibility and command structure, however one tries to paint it, and yet, Khamenei is praising a triumph no one outside the propaganda apparatus sees.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting in Tehran, Iran, May 20, 2025. (credit: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS)

It is a sign of a leader operating in a parallel universe, dangerously detached from the facts on the ground. Even if he knows the truth and is merely trying to save face.

Absent from public view 

For 12 days, Khamenei was largely out of public view. Amid the most direct and devastating strikes on Iran since the Iran-Iraq War, the supreme leader, known for issuing sermons and statements even during past crises, was absent. According to multiple reports, Khamenei had gone underground, literally. Fearing assassination attempts by Israel, he was moved to a secure location, cut off from electronic communication, his whereabouts known to only a few.

During this time, state television presenters were pressed to ask what millions of Iranians were already whispering: Where is he? Is he alive? Who is in charge? The head of Khamenei’s office, Mehdi Fazaeli, offered no real answers, only vague reassurances that “even officials have been asking.” The revelation that even senior Iranian figures are unsure of the supreme leader’s condition, physical and mental, should worry any regime that claims stability.

Even more disturbing than the Supreme Leader’s silence is what he finally chose to say. In his speech, Khamenei painted tactical failures as strategic victories. Iran on Monday night fired 10 ballistic missiles at the US Central Command (CENTCOM)'s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar and one ballistic missile at an American base in Iraq in retaliation for Washington's attack on three Iranian nuclear sites on Sunday morning.

“A great thing,” Khamenei stated, as if token retaliation for setting back Iran's nuclear program by years, massive infrastructural damage, and high-level assassinations could be considered a win.

He claimed that Iran “can take action whenever it deems necessary,” while avoiding any mention of the IRGC’s decapitated leadership, the paralysis in decision-making, or the visibly shaken confidence of Iran’s regional proxies.

Rumors have also been abound during the conflict regarding Khamenei’s mental state. Multiple sources within the Iranian system have suggested that top officials may no longer be fully briefing Khamenei on the state of affairs. Whether out of fear, dysfunction, or calculation, the result is the same: Iran’s most powerful man may also be its most dangerously uninformed.

An authoritarian system dependent on total obedience cannot survive long when its leadership is locked away in bunkers, out of touch with reality, and reliant on sycophants to feed it illusions of grandeur.

When your supreme leader disappears for two weeks, emerges from hiding to declare victory after the regime has been humiliated, and continues to behave as if nothing has changed, it sets a dangerous signal.

The world is used to tyrants blustering and attempting to save face, but given all the blows the Iranian regime has suffered over the past two weeks, plus whether Khamenei is still in possession of all his faculties, it shows the regime is far from safe and secure, despite an end to the hostilities.