The meeting, Aug. 11 -- Five months after the start of what Iran's leadership calls the Third Imposed War, Mojtaba Khamenei met Monday with President Masoud Pezeshkian in what Iranian state media described as the Supreme Leader's first documented public engagement since the conflict began.

the formal statement from the office and the video, which circulated through channels separate from the official announcement, reaching audiences that institutional media alone might not have penetrated.

The five-month absence marked a period in which Iran's supreme authority had been visible primarily through proclamations, with no confirmed face-to-face meetings on record. The Islamic Republic's legitimacy rests substantially on the continued presen...