Following a week of persistent reports on the ill health, hospitalization, and even death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the foreign media, Iran’s state-censored media is engaged in a frenetic effort to discredit such reports and prove Iran’s supreme leader is back to normal and in charge of the affairs of the state. This effort betrays at least two rather inconvenient points for the Islamic Republic: First, the Iranian public has greater trust in foreign media coverage of Iran than in the Islamic Republic’s state-censored media. Second, lacking confidence in its ability to facilitate a smooth leadership succession after Khamenei, rumors of illness of the leader rattled the regime to the extent that necessitated parading an ill man in front of the cameras to calm the situation. 

• September 17: The Office for the Preservation and Propagation of the Works of His Holiness Grand Ayatollah Khamenei released photos, video footage, and a transcript of the Iranian leader’s seven-minute address to a group of students commemorating a religious holiday. Khamenei’s photo appeared on the front page of most newspapers.  
• September 18: Under the headline “List of the Lies of the Counterrevolution During the Past 48 Hours,” Fars News questioned the integrity of foreign Persian-language media outlets that reported Khamenei’s poor health. 
• September 18: Mohammad Marandi, a public relations advisor to Iran’s team of nuclear negotiators, posting a photo of Khamenei’s September 17 address to the students, tweeted: “Imagine how terrible & biased the New York Times & the rest of western media are on other issues linked to Iran.”  
• September 18: Nour News reported that President Ebrahim Raisi, returning from Uzbekistan, “met the supreme leader of the revolution and reported on meetings and agreements at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization,” and consulted him regarding Raisi’s “trip to New York, where he will be participating at the United Nations General Assembly.”  
• September 18: Mehr News reported that Brigadier General Bahman Karegar, director of the Foundation for Preservation and Propagation of the Values of the Sacred Defense, said Iran-Iraq War veterans will be meeting Khamenei September 21.