‘Everything Is Fine’ Iran Official Claims Leader Still Alive Amid Strikes, Insists Only ‘One or Two Commanders’ Dead

Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi insisted on Saturday that all high-ranking government officials remain alive despite reports that U.S. and Israeli strikes took out Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and others.

Araghchi joined NBC News from Tehran shortly after his country was hit with dozens of strikes from the U.S. and Israel. President Donald Trump announced the large-scale military operation and encouraged the Iranian people to overthrow the current regime.

A Saturday report on the strikes cited a senior Israeli official saying Khamenei is “no longer with us” after the strikes. Other reports, including from Fox News’ Trey Yingst, suggested multiple senior-level government officials were taken out in the strikes.

Araghchi claimed on Saturday that only “one or two commanders” were lost, “but that is not a big problem.” Khameneih, he said, remains alive “as far as I know.” The foreign minister insisted, however, that all high-ranking officials are still alive.

“Everything is fine,” he said.

Araghchi said:

The situation on the ground is quite, I cannot say normal, but life is going on. Everything is under control. I think Americans and Israelis failed to, you know, hit their targets. And now everything is under control and almost in less than two hours, we were able to start retaliation by sending, by attacking, you know, American bases and some targets in Israel by our missiles. Almost all officials are safe and sound and alive. We may have lost one or two commanders, but that is not a big problem and you know we are actually managing it, we are handling the situation.

He then specifically said he believes the country’s top leader remains alive, along with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian .

“As far as I know, yes, they are alive,” he said. “And the head of Judiciary as well, the head the Speaker of Parliament as well. All high ranking officials are alive, and the Secretary of the National Security Council. So everybody is now in its position and we are handling this situation and everything is fine.”

Watch above via NBC News.

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