Fact Check: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Did NOT Address The World After Reports Of His Death

Fact Check

  • by: Ed Payne
Fact Check: Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Did NOT Address The World After Reports Of His Death Old Video

Did Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei address the world, proving that he is still alive? No, that's not true: The video circulating on social media is from a speech by Khamenei broadcast more than two weeks earlier on Feb. 11, 2026. He died on Feb. 28, 2026, in an airstrike targeting his compound in Tehran, according to Iranian state media.

The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on Feb. 28, 2026. It read:

BREAKING: 🚨🇮🇷

Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei addresses the world just now!

HE IS ALIVE!
US and ISRAEL are fucking liars.

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

Iran Leader.jpg

(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of X.)

The video can be watched here:

Conflict in the Middle East

Khamenei died in an attack by Israel and the United States on Feb. 28, 2026, the Associated Press reported (archived here), according to the Iranian state media.

Original speech

Using a screenshot from the video, Lead Stories did a reverse image search (archived here) using Google Images. The search showed that the video of the speech first aired on Feb. 11, 2026. This story (archived here) on the Al-Manar TV website in Lebanon is one example documenting the address:

chrome_i17ahdAzUO.png

(Image Source: Lead Stories screenshot of Al-Manar TV website.)

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Ed Payne

Ed Payne is a staff writer at Lead Stories. He is an Emmy Award-winning journalist as part of CNN’s coverage of 9/11. Ed worked at CNN for nearly 24 years with the CNN Radio Network and CNN Digital. Most recently, he was a Digital Senior Producer for Gray Television’s Digital Content Center, the company’s digital news hub for 100+ TV stations. Ed also worked as a writer and editor for WebMD. In addition to his journalistic endeavors, Ed is the author of two children’s book series: “The Daily Rounds of a Hound” and “Vail’s Tales.” 

Read more about or contact Ed Payne

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