Iran's supreme leader meets security chief Rezaei over Strait of Hormuz

Right · 2Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, met security chief Mohsen Rezaei on Tuesday 27 October 2026, according to a statement from Khamenei's office and Iranian state media. 1 2 Right · 2The statement said they discussed "strengthening bilateral relations with neighboring countries" and safeguarding national and regional security through the management of the Strait of Hormuz; Reuters's rendering of state media says "maintaining control over" the strait. 1 2 Right · 2Khamenei stressed safeguarding the rights and interests of the Iranian nation and the "resistance front" by holding to the conditions set by the country's authorities for ending the war and the state of "neither war nor peace". 1 2

Right · 2The meeting was announced a day after Rezaei held talks in Tehran with senior officials from Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, which signed the Mecca (Makkah) mutual defence pact in August; Reuters described it as the first high-level contact between Iran and the three since the war drew in Saudi Arabia and Yemen's Houthi movement. 1 2 Right · 1Khamenei was chosen in March to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a father who was killed in US-Israeli strikes in central Tehran on 28 February, and has not appeared in public since; AFP says Khamenei has communicated only through written messages, some published in attributed handwriting. 1 Right · 1AFP said this was the first publicly announced encounter between Rezaei and the leader, and that the date and location were not disclosed; it added that Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have recently said they also held rare meetings with Khamenei. 1

Right · 1Iran claims control over the strait and regularly targets vessels crossing without its authorisation, while the US has imposed a naval counter-blockade on Iranian ports; diplomacy has stalled since a June deal collapsed, per AFP. 1 Right · 1An Iranian official told Reuters that the nuclear programme would not be discussed at Monday's meeting and would not be addressed until Tehran's demands are met, which include an end to the US blockade and to US sanctions on oil exports; US Vice President JD Vance said three weeks ago that Iran must reduce nuclear enrichment to end the war. 2