Israel has warned Iran's new Supreme Leader it 'knows where he is' after Donald Trump suggested he might already be dead.
Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in US-Israeli strikes and has not been seen since the start of the war prompting wild speculation over his condition.
A statement attributed to the Iranian leader was read out on state TV last Thursday to stifle rumours that he was killed after his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated. But he was not seen.
Mr Trump responded by fanning the flames over the weekend, telling NBC News: 'I don't know if he's even alive. So far, nobody's been able to show him.' He said he had heard a 'rumour' of his death, adding: 'I'm hearing he's not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that's surrender...
'Some of them think he's alive but very badly wounded.' But on Sunday night, an Israeli security official told the Daily Mail bluntly: 'We know where he is.' It comes as supposed Iranian sources have pushed conspiracy theories that Khamenei, 56, was smuggled out the country to Russia for treatment on the orders of Vladimir Putin.
One newspaper quoted 'regime insiders' bizarrely suggesting a 'secret operation' was launched last week and the Supreme Leader is now recovering in a private hospital in Moscow. Others have peddled false claims that Benjamin Netanyahu has died from a heart attack.
The Israeli security official said: 'I recommend not following every report Iran puts out.' The Ayatollah was killed by US missiles on the first day of the war and speculation over the whereabouts of his son is only spiralling as the conflict enters its third week.
Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi gave an interview to The New Arab in which he said: 'The leader of the revolution is in good health and is fully managing the situation.' Security expert Professor Anthony Glees said: 'At times of war, the dark arts will play a significant part as the weapon of choice on all sides.
'But the really big thing is that Mojtaba has not been seen, and that suggests to me that the regime may well be in trouble. 'It would be such an easy thing to show him alive and well, and that would be the most powerful propaganda message of all that in the third week of the war Israel and the US have failed to cut the head off the snake, as it were.
'However, I have still not seen the smoking gun to suggest that this regime is on the verge of collapse.' Avner Vilan, a former senior security official in Israel and expert on Iran, added: 'The whereabouts and condition of Khamenei are a strategic asset for both sides.
'Neither side would want to share information publicly, and both may make efforts to create false impressions about his condition and location. 'They did admit quickly that the Ayatollah was killed, but not the son.
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