With intensification American military expansion in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei reportedly ended his 37-year tenure by skipping the annual February 8 meeting with air force generals.
Khamenei has joined the annual meeting every year since taking over in 1989 — despite the outbreak of COVID-19, the report said Iranian International.
The annual gathering commemorates the anniversary of February 8, 1979, when a cohort of Air Force officers swore allegiance to Ruhollah Khomeini and overthrew the Pahlavi monarchy. Khomeini was the founder of the Islamic Republic and Khamenei’s predecessor as supreme leader.
Over the next four decades, the date became a symbolic ritual for Air Force personnel and superiors to meet with Iran’s spiritual elite on the same day each year.
The report noted that this year, instead of Khamenei, Abdolrahim Mousavi, the chief of the general staff of the armed forces, consulted with the commanders of the army and air force on Sunday.
The development comes as friction between Tehran and Washington has intensified, with the US growing its military footprint in the region and fears of a possible US military strike hanging over the Islamic Republic.
Khamenei’s absence is interpreted as the supreme leader avoiding potential danger or preoccupied with national defense issues.
Negotiations between Iran and the US
Iran and the United States held indirect discussions in Oman on Friday, negotiations that seemed to return to the initial stage on how to conduct dialogues on Tehran’s nuclear project. But for the first time, America has included its top military officer in the Middle East at the table.
The sight of US Navy Admiral Brad Cooper, the head of the military’s Central Command, in his formal attire at the talks in Muscat, the capital of Oman, acted as a warning that the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and other warships were now near Iran’s coast in the Arabian Sea.
President Donald Trump noted that the United States had “very good” talks on Iran and said more talks are scheduled to begin early next week. But he kept up the pressure, warning that if the nation did not reach a deal on its nuclear program, “the consequences are very steep.”
“It looks like Iran wants to make a deal very badly — as it should,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Ali Larijani, an adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will travel to Oman where he will be joined by a delegation on Tuesday, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Monday.
“During this trip, (Larijani) will meet senior officials of the Sultanate of Oman and discuss the latest regional and international developments and bilateral cooperation at various levels,” Tasnim said.
The date and place of the next round of negotiations are not yet known.
