Mojtaba Khamenei has verified account on X, Elon Musk’s platform

Iran’s new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, has a new “verified” account on X, the influential social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

Khamenei, whose X handle is @Rahbarenghelab_, went on a tweetstorm Thursday about the war against Iran by the U.S. and Israel, and the Islamic Republic’s response to it.

“Dear fighter brothers! The desire of the masses of the people is the continuation of effective and regret-inducing defense. Furthermore, the leverage of blocking the Strait of Hormuz must certainly continue to be used,” Khamenei wrote in one post to his more than 44,000 followers on X. All of the posts have been translated by X from Persian.

“I assure everyone that we will not forgo vengeance for the blood of your martyrs,” he wrote in another post.

In addition to talking about the Strait of Hormuz, Khamenei urged Iran’s neighbors in the Middle East to “clarify their stance” and for those that host U.S. military bases to shut them down.

Khamenei was selected as Iran’s supreme leader earlier this week to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike on the first day of the war, Feb. 28.

Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project, blasted the fact that Mojtaba Khamenei had been allowed an X account. TTP in February released a report that found there were X accounts in the names of Iranian officials, agencies and government-run media outlets that had a blue check mark, which indicates they were customers of X’s premium service.

“For the past three years the Tech Transparency Project has repeatedly highlighted how X is profiting from providing premium subscriptions to US sanctioned entities — many linked to terrorism — in apparent violation of US sanctions law,” Paul told CNBC in an email.

“Now it’s happening with the sanctioned leader of a country the US is actively engaged in war with,” Paul said.

Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX, which owns X and the artificial intelligence company xAI, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Mojtaba Khamenei’s new account on the social network. The account has a blue check mark reserved for “premium” users.

CNBC