Claim: Photos of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei crying, show his reaction to receiving news of Israel’s recent attack on Iran’s embassy in Syria.
Fact: The pictures are old and have been shared in a misleading context on X. They actually show Khamenei crying on two separate occasions in the past.
On 2 April 2024, X user @KarmelMelamed posted (archived) two pictures of Khamenei with a misleading caption, saying:
“This was the official reaction of Iran’s Supreme Loser to news of Iranians worldwide rejoicing after the demise of the IRGC terrorists in Syria yesterday.”
The user’s post came in lieu of Israel’s bombardment of Iran’s embassy in Damascus, an event that killed seven, including three senior Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders on 1 April.
The attack stoked fears of an escalated war in the Middle East. While Iran vowed to take revenge, The Washington Post cites “analysts, Western officials and people close to Iranian-backed militant groups” as saying that any retaliatory response would be calibrated, as war with Israel could prove to be “costly.”
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a reverse image search of each of the two photographs on Google and found that both have appeared in news articles and on social media platforms several times over the years.
The first picture in the X post, showing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei crying profusely, with his left hand over his mouth, is from at least 10 years ago. The image appeared in an article dating as far back as 2013 and shows Khamenei in mourning while observing a religious ceremony, namely the “third night of the mourning ceremony of Hazrat Fatima (as).” Other photos of Khamenei taken at the same ceremony from different angles show him wearing the same clothes and ring confirm that the picture is not recent. Soch Fact Check also found this image published on a poetry blog in 2016.
The second photograph, showing Khamenei pressing a handkerchief to his eyes, is also not recent. Even though Soch Fact Check could not ascertain when it was published the first time, we observed that this particular image of the Supreme Leader has been used in several news reports in the past. This article from 2018, about Khamenei’s poem, ‘Pure Wine and Deadly Poison,’ uses the photograph in question as a cover image. Another article from 2022, reporting on the rumours of Khamenei’s death at the time, carries the same image of him.
Besides news reports, Soch Fact Check found this image of Khamenei shared in social media posts dating as far back as 2018 which further confirms that it is not recent. It can be seen here in a Facebook post from 2018 where a user praises the leader while a recent Linkedin post criticizing Khamenei also carries the same photo of him. X user @AviKaner also shared this image of Khamenei in 2022 in a misleading context and claims that it shows, “The mullahs in Tehran are having a very bad day. They realize how useless their rockets are with hundreds destroyed in past 24 hours alone.”
Therefore, Soch Fact Check concludes that both pictures of Khamenei from the viral claim are not recent, and have been linked to the recent bombing of Iran’s embassy by Israel in a misleading context.
Virality
The viral post on X garnered at least 10,300 views. Another post, sharing the same pictures in a misleading context, was viewed 13,000 times.
Conclusion: Photos showing Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei crying after receiving news of Israel’s recent bombardment of the Iranian embassy, are in fact old and have been shared in a misleading context.
—
Background image in cover photo: Reuters
To appeal against our fact-check, please send an email to appeals@sochfactcheck.com