The national leader whose cardboard cutout attended his own loyalty ceremony and who has never been seen or heard since getting bombed into oblivion on February 28 may not actually be above room temperature? The deuce you say.
Earlier this afternoon, Duane provided excruciating detail on the economic collapse taking place in Iran. The IRGC have made themselves into pests in the Strait of Hormuz and have frustrated Donald Trump's effort to resolve it, but Iranians are paying the price for it. It's gotten so bad, in fact, that regime president Masoud Pezeshkian attempted to meet with purported Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei to discuss the disaster and convince Nepo Babytollah to give up the war.
How did that go? Not well, apparently, since Pezeshkian wasn't allowed to see the person to whom he was talking. NBC News covered this but put it behind a paywall. Most other American media outlets have not, but international media certainly did:
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reportedly met Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei at a secret location in Tehran under extraordinary security measures, according to a report by Iran International.
The report claimed that Pezeshkian was transported to an undisclosed site in a commercial vehicle with heavily tinted windows, where the meeting allegedly took place in near darkness. It said the interaction lasted only a few minutes and that the president was unable to see the supreme leader during the meeting.
According to the report, Khamenei’s security personnel did not allow the two leaders to shake hands before Pezeshkian was escorted away.
The publication, citing sources, alleged that the president later questioned whether the person he had spoken to was actually the supreme leader.
It also claimed the meeting came only after Pezeshkian repeatedly requested an audience and threatened to resign over disagreements with Iran’s leadership. The report described the meeting as a concession granted after several appeals.
Iran International is an opposition media platform, so it has a clear bias. However, it has provided accurate reports in the past. Following the meeting, Pezeshkian did talk openly about the difficulties of meeting with Nepo Babytollah, although he tried to put a positive spin on things:
Separately, AFP quoted Pezeshkian as saying, “It is very difficult to communicate with him at the moment, but in any case, his presence is a very great source of strength for us so that we can continue.”
Despite acknowledging communication difficulties, the president defended the supreme leader.
“Unfortunately, the current situation allows some malicious people to describe him differently and to present a different image of him,” he said.
Well, you know what would solve that problem? Hauling the Cardboardatollah out for a personal appearance. His father certainly didn't shy away from cameras while ruling Iran with an iron turban. If Mojtaba is alive and actually issuing the orders, put him on camera and make his authority clear.
Instead, it appears the IRGC is about to pull a trick from the movie Dave. Now that Pezeshkian and others are forcing the point, Ahmad Vahidi is about to concede the ruse by pretending that Mojtaba finally gave up the ghost:
Another source close to Pezeshkian's cabinet stated that his physical condition is poor:
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) August 7, 2026
"We would not be surprised if we heard news of his martyrdom soon." https://t.co/YelfZ1E0hC
Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei hasn’t met any Iranian cabinet members since the US-Israeli strikes that killed his father and predecessor, Ali Khamenei, the opposition-aligned IranWire outlet reports, citing two unnamed sources close to President Masoud Pezeshkian’s administration.
The sources claim that “rumors that he is in extremely critical condition and could pass away at any moment are circulating widely within the highest levels of the regime.” ....
Mojtaba Khamenei has not made any public appearances since he became supreme leader, and no recordings of him speaking have been aired — only written statements attributed to him by state media. He was reportedly injured and possibly deformed in some way during the attack that killed his father, and has remained in hiding, reportedly communicating with other senior regime figures via a slow array of intermediaries to avoid being targeted.
What's really happening? Here are the two main scenarios:
- Face Value scenario: Mojtaba really has been running things behind the scenes, but has taken a turn for the worse – coincidentally, just as the Pezeshkian faction has demanded more access.
- Hand Puppet scenario: The domestic situation has grown desperate enough that the value of a Cardboardatollah has vanished for the IRGC. Pezeshkian keeps threatening to resign, and that could touch off a regime feud that would shortly descend into a collapse. Iranians, especially the merchant class, are about to revolt, and the Mojtaba dodge won't suffice any longer to prevent it. With Mojtaba's value reaching nil, it's a good time to pretend he's shuffled off the mortal coil.
I'm betting heavily on the Hand Puppet scenario. What would Ahmad Vahidi do in that instance? He could try to reach an accommodation with Pezeshkian to transition back to a civilian-run Islamist regime. Alternatively, Vahidi might go back to what remains of the "Assembly of Experts" to find a new ayatollah to take charge. That's risky, however; the ayatollahs may not be terribly fond of the hand-puppet strategy that Vahidi employed to usurp their divine authority over the Islamic Republic. In fact, a successor might have some very specific fatwas in mind.
The question, then, is whether Trump keeps up the current pressure long enough to force a collapse. He wants a deal that takes pressure off of oil prices and global commerce. It might not take much more effort to just wait for events to take their natural course for an authoritarian regime that can no longer feed its own people.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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