TEHRAN— In an extremely unfounded and unprofessional report published on Friday, the New York Times quoted four sources close to the Office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei as saying that he has canceled all public meetings and is in “bed rest.”

However, less than 24 hours later the Leader made a public appearance, not looking “gravely ill” as the Iranian-American writer of the New York Times had claimed. 

The newspaper claimed that the Leader was suffering from a severe pain in the stomach due to bowel obstruction and cannot even sit down, insisting that he has cancelled all public meetings.

The claim attracted the attention of several political pundits, as the Leader’s office had announced on Wednesday that Ayatollah Khamenei will host a mourning ceremony on the occasion of Arbaeen with university students.

The Leader addressed the students while standing on his own feet, putting the 150-year-old reputation of the American daily into question. 

Fereshteh Sadeghi, a former Al Jazeera producer and a well-known Iranian reporter tweeted on Saturday, “Who said Ayatollah Khamenei was gravely ill, had a surgery ‘last week’ and is ‘too weak to even sit up in bed’? Of course @nytimes.”

She continued, “He is well enough to walk.” It is also worthy of mention that the Leader walked perfectly, not requiring a cane.

She then quoted a friend as saying, “NYT’s report is part of the spoilers’ plans to foil rapprochement with #Iran and resolve the current standoff in a rational manner.”

Seyyed Mohammad Marandi, media advisor to the Iranian team engaged in talks to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also took a jab at the NYT report, tweeting, “The New York Times claim was made one day before Ayatollah Khamenei gave this standing speech.”

“They claimed to have FOUR people ‘familiar with his health situation,’” Marandi continued in his tweet on Saturday. 

“Imagine how terrible & biased the New York Times & the rest of western media are on other issues linked to Iran,” the advisor concluded. 

So far, the New York Times has not reacted to the Leader’s health conditions, which contrasted its unfounded report.

On top of that, Ayatollah Khamenei met President Ebrahim Raisi and received a fairly lengthy briefing on the president’s three-day trip to Uzbekistan, where he attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit.

He will also meet military commanders on Wednesday. 

This has led to several reactions from political commentators who believe that the Times has begun discrediting its reputation just to win the media war against Iran. Some even go far as saying that the U.S. wants to win this war so badly that it resorts to purely fabricated lies and baseless claims. 

“Iran’s SL (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Khamenei speaking in Tehran today. Does not appear to be ‘gravely ill’ & on ‘bed rest’ as claimed by anonymous sources to the NYT,” Sina Toosi, Senior Fellow at Center for International Policy, tweeted on Saturday.

“The NYT report published yesterday asserted in the present tense that he was gravely ill, is currently on bed rest, & his doctors remain concerned that he is too weak to even stand up in bed,” Toosi continued.

Similarly, Ali Ahmadi, Executive Fellow at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy, tweeted Saturday, “Maybe SL was a bit ill & healed. But honestly, NYT's reporting about Iran has really seemed cribbed from WhatsApp rumor mill over the last couple years.”

Analysts in Iran have reached another conclusion, that the New York Times reporters are being fed fake news by the Israeli sources. 

Anyway, the Times is engaged in a media war against Iran, and is not afraid to resort to spreading fake news, disinformation, and misinformation. This is certainly not the first time they have done this, and will definitely not be the last one.