A social media profile purportedly connected to Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency has accused Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of passing his time in extended sleep and drug use, amid widespread shortages of basic necessities like clean water and electricity in the country.
The account, posting in Farsi on X (formerly Twitter), questioned Khamenei’s leadership capabilities in a Friday update: “How can a leader lead when they sleep half the day and spend the other half high on substances? Water, electricity, life!”
An earlier post from July 9 added, “Consuming drugs and conversing with spirits are not desirable traits for someone leading a country.”
This X account, which holds a premium subscription and was established last month, presents itself as the official Mossad spokesperson in Farsi—Iran’s primary language—though the Israeli agency has not publicly verified its legitimacy. Over the past month, it has shared multiple updates critiquing Khamenei’s health and highlighting Iran’s challenges, such as inadequate access to water, power, and education.
The account’s bio advises users: “To everyone contacting us through private messages, for your own security, please ensure you are using a VPN.”
One notable post addressed the recent appointment of an unnamed commander to the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters, the central command for Iran’s Armed Forces. Following a report from Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency—linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps—that the commander’s identity would remain secret for security reasons, the Mossad-affiliated account claimed prior knowledge of the name and invited Iranians to submit guesses. It later congratulated a “lucky winner” who correctly identified Ali Abdollahi Aliabadi and instructed him to reach out privately for a prize.
These tongue-in-cheek and bold assertions deviate from Mossad’s typical public communication style, but two experts consulted by Israeli news outlet JFeed believe the account is genuine. Beny Sabti, an Iran specialist at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a former IDF Persian-language officer, noted that “some of the information it has shared could only have come from Mossad.”
Allegations of Khamenei’s drug involvement aren’t new. In 2022, Iranian academic Nour Mohamed Omara claimed on a Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated TV channel in Turkey that “many viewers do not know this, but Khamenei himself uses drugs.”
Omara further alleged that a dedicated village in Balochistan, managed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and off-limits to outsiders, produces the substances for the leader.
Ironically, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Khamenei denounced drug use as contrary to Islamic principles, with Iran’s laws imposing severe punishments, including the death penalty, for related crimes.
