With the nation watching, the host on Iranian state television asked the question that so many people in Iran — from the political elite to people on the street — were wondering.
“People are very worried about the supreme leader,” the host said to an official from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s office on Tuesday. “Can you tell us how he is?”
He noted that viewers had sent a flood of messages asking the same thing. But the official, Mehdi Fazaeli, the head of Mr. Khamenei’s archives office, did not give a straight answer.
Instead, Mr. Fazaeli said that he, too, had received numerous inquiries from officials and others worried about the ayatollah after the furious bombing campaign by Israel and the United States.
“We should all be praying,” Mr. Fazaeli said.
“The people who are responsible for protecting the supreme leader are doing their job well,” he added. “God willing-, our people can celebrate victory next to their leader, God willing.”
Mr. Khamenei, who has the final say on key decisions in Iran, has not been seen publicly or heard from in nearly a week, despite the extraordinary crisis that his country has faced.
In the last few days alone, the United States bombed three of Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran retaliated by firing ballistic missiles at an American base in Qatar, and Iran and Israel agreed to a cease-fire that went into effect Tuesday morning.
His absence has surprised and unnerved everyone from political insiders to the general public.
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