Claim: A video claims to show the first public appearance of Iran’s current Supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei during Field Marshal Asim Munir’s visit to Iran on 24 August.
Fact: The archival footage of the Iranian Supreme Leader was first released on 18 August 2026, prior to Asim Munir’s visit.
On 25 August 2026, X user Zard si Gana posted a video showing Iran’s Supreme Leader alone on camera, making a speech. It was posted with the following caption:
“BREAKING Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei appeared in public for the first time during Field Marshal Asim Munir’s visit to Iran.
Iranian media is crediting Field Marshal Asim Munir saying that his visit and presence made the appearance possible.”
Screenshot of the viral X post.
Fact or Fiction?
The Iranian Supreme Leader has not made any public appearances or recorded statements since his appointment in March 2026, as reported by Iran International and Reuters. Soch Fact Check reverse-image searched the clip of the Khamenei to see if he had made any appearance recently, or at all, specially since Field Marshal Asim Munir’s day-long visit to Iran on 24 August 2026.
To verify the exact date of this archival video, Soch Fact Check, tried to access official Iran news channels and found the official video that has been published in the past. On the digital Iranian platform, Aparat on 18 August 2026, under the title “Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei’s Attendance at a Doctoral Thesis Defense Session.”
This search also led to licensable images and video of the Supreme Leader speaking to a group of men. This video was released by Fars News Agency on 24 August of 2026 to news agencies like Reuters Connect, state-owned Tehran Times and Al Arabiya English and Getty Images. However, the date of recording is not clear.
Al Arabiya English stated that “Iranian media releases archive footage of Mojtaba Khamenei, reportedly filmed before he became Supreme Leader, as he has not appeared in public since his appointment in March 2026.” Tehran Times also published similar information about this video, stating that it was filmed when Khamenei served as a thesis advisor.
Left: Image from Al Arabiya English. Right: Image from Tehran Times.
However, this is the date of publication and not the date of recording. The claim is misleading as news agencies published the video on the day of Asim Munir’s visit, however, it was first published online on 18 August, six days before the Field Marshall reached Iran.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim posted over six times on Facebook, once on Instagram, and twice on X.
On X, the two most popular posts received 11.2K views and 19.2K views.
The most popular post on Facebook garnered 3.2K views and 25 likes.
Conclusion: The footage displaying Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was first posted six days before Asim Munir’s visit to Iran.
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