Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian was taken to a secret location in Tehran and placed inside a dark vehicle for a brief meeting with a man presented as Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, according to an exclusive report by Iran International.
The extraordinary account, which relies on unidentified sources familiar with the episode, has not been confirmed by Iranian officials or independently verified.
According to the report, Pezeshkian’s security detail drove him to an undisclosed location in the Iranian capital. He was then moved from his own vehicle into the rear of a commercial car with tinted windows, where Khamenei was said to be waiting.
The area was reportedly so dark that the two men could not see one another. Khamenei’s guards also allegedly prevented them from shaking hands, leaving the president to communicate with the supposed supreme leader entirely by voice.
President Reportedly Felt Humiliated
Iran International’s sources said the conversation lasted only several minutes before Pezeshkian was instructed to leave.
The president reportedly regarded the treatment as humiliating. After returning from the meeting, he allegedly questioned whether the person speaking to him in the darkness had actually been Khamenei or merely someone whose voice was being presented as his.
The outlet said it was unclear whether Pezeshkian’s question reflected genuine suspicion or was simply an angry reaction to the conditions imposed on him. He has reportedly requested a second meeting at Khamenei’s official residence, but that request has not been approved.
The reported encounter sharply contradicts the version Pezeshkian previously offered in public. In May, the president said he had spent approximately two and a half hours with Khamenei “in a cordial atmosphere.”
Iran International’s sources instead claimed that the meeting lasted only minutes and was arranged only after repeated requests from Pezeshkian and threats that he might resign.
Iran’s Unseen Supreme Leader
The report comes amid intense secrecy surrounding Mojtaba Khamenei, who was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts to succeed his father as the Islamic Republic’s third supreme leader.
Iran International reported that no authenticated photograph, video or audio recording of Mojtaba Khamenei has been released during the roughly five months since his selection.
Iranian state-aligned newspaper Hamshahri recently argued that releasing the leader’s voice could help foreign intelligence agencies locate his hiding place by analyzing electrical frequencies, echoes and other background sounds. The explanation appears to have intensified speculation regarding his condition and whereabouts rather than ending it.
Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi acknowledged in July that he had not recently seen Khamenei.
“I have not seen Mojtaba Khamenei during this period, and only a limited number of people have met with him,” Araghchi said during an online interview. Pezeshkian claimed the following day that meetings with the supreme leader had actually become more frequent.
Disputed Claims of Repeated Resignations
The controversy also follows claims by senior cleric Mohammad-Bagher Kharrazi, a relative of Khamenei by marriage, that Pezeshkian had threatened or attempted to resign 28 times.
Kharrazi claimed the supreme leader warned that another resignation would immediately be accepted.
“If he resigns one more time, I will approve it,” Kharrazi quoted Khamenei as saying. “That will be the end of it.”
Both Khamenei’s office and Pezeshkian’s allies rejected Kharrazi’s allegations. The supreme leader’s office called the account “entirely false” and said statements distributed outside its official channels were unauthenticated.
Pezeshkian also publicly denied that he intended to step down.
“I will not resign, and I will stand firm,” he said in an interview preview broadcast by Iranian state television.
While the dark-vehicle meeting remains an unverified allegation, the competing accounts have exposed the secrecy and internal distrust surrounding Iran’s leadership. They also raise new questions about the balance of power between Pezeshkian’s elected government, the supreme leader’s office and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
