Students hold a poster of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during an annual gathering outside the former US Embassy in Tehran.

Photo: AP

Several messages appeared on social media on Saturday claiming this Iran‘s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei85, in a coma. The claims began going viral on social media after a New York Times report earlier in October that Ali Khamenei was “seriously ill.” However, there has been no official report from any source of any further deterioration in the ayatollah’s health.

Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, debunked the claims, saying they are most likely false. He added that Ali Khamenei was last seen on November 7.

“Tweets about how the Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime is in a coma or even died are all over my timeline,” he wrote. “Not a single credible news outlet has reported this. So be careful what you post. Khamenei was last seen in public on November 7.”

The New York Times report, published on October 27, claimed that Khamenei is suffering from a serious medical condition and that he is “critically ill.” The report even went so far as to claim that Ali Khamenei’s eldest son, Mojtaba Khamenei, would succeed him.

Despite no reports of any further deterioration in Ali Khamenei’s health, claims that the 85-year-old is in a coma surfaced on social media. Here are some such posts:

Images also emerged of Ali Khamenei on a hospital bed, adding to rumors that he was in a coma. However, as of 2014, those images have also been debunked.

The NYT report on Ali Khamenei being “critically ill” came shortly after Israel carried out a precision military strike on several Iranian military targets. The Israeli military said the attack was carried out in response to the Iranian missile attack on Israel on October 1.