The discussion about Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has intensified that he is now working not from his official office in the capital Tehran, but from a bunker or secret safe place. These speculations have been given further air by his recent video message which was released on 18 June.
The technical investigation of this video has found some indications that show that it has been shot not from the commonly used high-quality setup but in a temporary and low resources environment.
What has changed in video
This time Khamenei has used a small lapel mike instead of high-end stand mic.
The quality of the video is less than normal and it looks quite compressed.
Where his first videos used to be fast and clean, this time the recording looks faded and ordinary.
Understand technical comparison
Video of June 10: 3 minutes 50 seconds tall, size 24 MB, video bitrate 892 kbps and audio quality 95.4 kbps
Video of June 18: Despite being 9 minutes long, the size is only 18 MB, video bitrate to 256 kbps and audio just 2.4 kbps
This heavy technical decline has forced experts to think that this video may have been recorded from a setup with low resources made in a safe place like a bunker.
Why this question is necessary
Given the role of Iran in the Middle East and the recent stressful situations, there is a possibility that Khamenei has been transferred for security reasons. If they are really working from an underground or special security place, then it can be a big sign about Iran’s internal situation. At present, no official statement has come from Iran, but the technical aspects of the video have definitely raised many questions.