TEHRAN, Aug. 10 -- For five months, Iran's Supreme Leader had not appeared in public or in the media, a disappearance that stretched from the beginning of the conflict with the United States until Sunday, when a video began circulating in Iranian media showing Mojtaba Khamenei alive and engaged in official business.

The video arrived separately from an official statement published on Khamenei's Telegram channel, which said the Supreme Leader had met with President Masoud Pezeshkian and discussed the economy, the military situation, and what the statement called "the current situation of the Third Imposed War with a look to the future." The statement did not comment on the video, or on the significance of Sunday's appearance as Khamenei's...