Mojtaba Khamenei meets Mohsen Rezaei on Strait of Hormuz and terms to end war

TEHRAN: Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has met Major General Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council. National and regional security, the Strait of Hormuz and relations with neighbouring countries were discussed. The Office of the Supreme Leader announced the meeting on Tuesday. The date and place of the meeting were not given.

According to the office’s statement, the talks covered protecting national and regional security through the management of the Strait of Hormuz. They also covered strengthening bilateral ties with neighbouring countries on a lasting basis and on mutual interests. In messages posted on X, it said Mojtaba Khamenei stressed the link between four areas in the Security Council: culture, politics, the economy and security. According to Iranian sources, he described the enemy’s despair as one of the results of national resistance.

The statement said the Supreme Leader stressed the need to protect the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and the resistance front. He also stressed the need to act on the conditions set by the country’s officials and to end the state of “no war, no peace” along with the war. He also stressed active engagement to keep public participation in the country’s defence.

According to Arab News, the meeting was announced a day after Rezaei held talks with senior officials of Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. The three countries have recently signed the Makkah mutual defence agreement. This is the first officially announced meeting between Rezaei and the Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen in March to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli attacks in Tehran on 28 February along with senior military commanders. According to Arab News, Mojtaba was also reported to have been injured in the same attack. Since taking office he has not been seen in public and has communicated only through written messages, some of which were published in handwriting attributed to him. In recent days, Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf have also claimed rare meetings with him.

Iran claims control of the Strait of Hormuz and targets ships that pass without permission, while the United States has imposed a naval blockade on Iranian ports. Diplomatic efforts have stalled since the June agreement collapsed. On 22 October, according to state broadcaster IRIB, Rezaei said that action against Iran would carry a price. He said diplomacy was the priority, but that if the war continued, Iran had the means to keep responding. US President Donald Trump said recently that Washington was not holding talks with Tehran, but that progress could come “very soon”.