Where is Mojtaba? He must be seen at his father's funeral.

What he says

An English translation of the talk, which is in Persian. It was made with AI from YouTube's automatic captions and may contain errors; the Persian transcript is authoritative. Click a timestamp to jump to that part of the video.

0:01 Hello. It is Wednesday, 10 Tir 1405, July 1, 2026. First, I apologize that because of back-to-back travel I was absent for two sessions and could not be with you on the even-numbered days as usual. The funeral of Mr. Khamenei and his daughter-in-law, daughter and son-in-law, in short his family members, is going to take up almost the whole of next week, the week ahead. According to what has been announced, the funeral procession will begin in Tehran,

0:54 go to Qom, then from there to Karbala, then to Mashhad, and the burial is ultimately to take place at the shrine of Imam Reza. The regime insists on claiming that millions upon millions of Iranians came and took part, and that they therefore support not just Khamenei but the entire system, and it wants to stage such a show in Iran and Iraq. According to figures that trickle out piecemeal from the officials of the organizing headquarters themselves,

1:49 thousands of tons of meat, rice, pilaf, stew and so on are to be cooked and distributed to get people to come. On top of that, they are going to mobilize all of the country's resources. Each region is to host people brought in from a particular province or city, in a city like Tehran, for example. In short, there is a large-scale organization, and a number of filmmakers are later going to direct this ceremony. Films will be made. It is an effort by the regime to build itself a popular base, if it can, out of this funeral. Of course, this sort of thing, hired crowds, bringing people in

2:51 and feeding them rice and stew, and possibly even threats, closing government offices and so on, has precedents, for example in a country like North Korea. When the father of the current leader died, people were forced to come, they even had to cry, and things like that. I don't mean that everyone who goes is going by force or for the rice and pilaf. After all, this regime, or Khamenei himself and his family, may have a few million supporters. But in the country's current dire economic situation, and that of the people, these shows of strength may more than anything else become a target of criticism: that instead of actually solving

3:49 people's problems, the regime is busy putting on displays and staging shows. But setting this game aside, a big question is now being raised: after several months, will Mojtaba Khamenei, who has been appointed Leader, finally emerge from behind the curtain of occultation at the funeral and burial of Khamenei, his daughter, daughter-in-law and so on, or not? Logically and naturally, if he exists, that is, if he is alive, healthy, not in a coma, has arms and legs, and, as they claim, only had a few superficial wounds

4:47 which have since healed, he should appear at this ceremony. After all, it is the funeral of his father, his wife, his sister, his sister's husband, and his nephew or niece; in any case, they are his family members. And logically he should lead the prayer over the deceased whom they intend to bury, and since it is a religious ceremony, he must be present. These days, word is going around that Mojtaba Khamenei will still not attend the ceremony for security reasons. That seems a ridiculous reason, because the war is now in a ceasefire anyway, and no attack is expected to

5:43 take place. So the country is not at war either. If Mojtaba Khamenei is not at next week's ceremony, then we must accept that either he is dead and all this time they have just been playing hide-and-seek, or his health is in such a state that he is fundamentally incapable of performing his duties, even saying a funeral prayer. In any case, in my opinion, next week's ceremony, regardless of the theatrics they put on, is an important test for understanding where this Mr. Mojtaba actually stands.

6:34 As for the negotiations based on the 14-point framework of the memorandum of understanding between Iran and America, which were supposed to begin last Tuesday: it has finally been announced that they are under way indirectly, on technical issues between the so-called technical officials of the two countries on the nuclear issue. It has also been reported that Mr. Gharibabadi, who traveled to Qatar, said on his return that part of the 6 billion dollars that was supposed to be paid to Iran as the first step will come into the country in the form of goods. "We give a list," as Mr. Gharibabadi

7:34 says, "and after approval, the goods are purchased and come into the country." This is the first time a regime official has confirmed this, because American officials kept saying that no money was going to be given to Iran and that they could buy goods, and from America at that. Mr. Gharibabadi said, of course, no, we will buy wherever we want, but the important thing is that it comes in the form of goods. In any case, what is being said so far is that 24 billion dollars of the country's blocked funds are to be released in total, and the 12 billion of that which is in Qatar is to be released before the rest, including the initial 6 billion dollars, which is the same money that was transferred from South Korea to Qatar during Mr.

8:33 Biden's time to be paid to Iran, money held in South Korea from oil sales, in exchange for Iran freeing five American hostages and America freeing five Iranian prisoners. But at the last moment, after the release and exchange of the prisoners and so on, the US government halted its transfer to Iran because of the October 7 events, and all these years that money has remained in limbo. In any case, Mr. Trump and his administration in America are also under heavy pressure, because time and time

9:27 and time again, during the presidential election and afterwards, Mr. Trump attacked Obama for releasing money, saying Iran took Iran's money and spent it on terrorism, and "I won't give a single dollar." Anyway, if this happens... In Iran, for now, though it hasn't happened yet, the negotiators are under pressure, being told, in short, "You have sold the Leader for the price of American soybeans, just as Ibn Sa'd sold Imam Hussein for the wheat of Rey." And in America, too, pressure has started on Mr. Trump: "After all that talk, you yourself are doing the same thing

10:18 Obama did." Anyway, we'll have to see what happens. North Sea Brent crude has reached 71 dollars a barrel, which can be said to be one of the lowest prices since the start of the war in the Persian Gulf and with Iran, and it shows that the oil market has a positive outlook. But the most important event in the past 24 hours, in my opinion, was the cutting off of Mr. Ghalibaf's remarks on Islamic Republic television. Mr. Ghalibaf had apparently recorded a two-hour speech in which he justified and explained the memorandum of understanding and the concessions they had obtained, as well as attacking the opponents of the memorandum.

11:13 Part of this talk was broadcast last night. Suddenly it was cut off. It is said that this happened at the point where Mr. Ghalibaf was explaining how Iran has so far sold 40 million barrels of oil since the start of the memorandum, with the permission of OFAC and the US Treasury Department, which some people don't like, and that "we've received this much money, this is how we're working," and at his attacks on the opponents of the memorandum, where he said that people who haven't taken a single slap and don't know what they're saying have started opposing it. Perhaps he was referring to the letter signed by 63, or by some accounts 66, members of the Assembly of Experts. In any case, this talk was cut off, and a huge uproar

12:11 broke out. The Majlis and Mr. Ghalibaf's office issued statements, and the parts that were not broadcast surfaced on social networks. Finally, the explanation from "Jalili's TV," as it's known, because Mr. Jalili's brother is the deputy of the head of IRIB, the explanation this outlet gave was that there had been a technical problem and the rest of the talk was cut off because of it. Tonight the entire talk, both parts, was supposed to be broadcast. I haven't had access, but tomorrow it will become clear whether they broadcast all of it or censored parts of it again. This affair, of course, has precedents:

13:11 the Islamic Republic's broadcaster, IRIB, under Khatami, Rouhani and others, blocked things whenever it opposed them. But it signals something more important, and that is the infighting within the regime, which has intensified. As for this infighting within the regime, what its structure is, where the problem lies, and where it is heading, that is a fundamental discussion that needs to be addressed, and we will talk about it more on the following nights. Hoping for the victory of Iran and the Iranian people.