'Alive and engaging': Rubio says Mojtaba Khamenei increasingly active in Iran-US war

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said that Iran's supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, who was rumoured to have died in the US-Israeli attacks, is alive and increasingly active, news agency AFP reported.

Khamenei was wounded in the attacks and has not been seen in public since assuming office, sparking rumours about his condition.

"I think there are indications out there that he is increasingly engaging at some level," Rubio told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Mojtaba, 56, succeeded his father Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the first wave of US-Israeli strikes that launched the war on February 28.

Track latest updates on the Israel-US, Iran war here.

Rubio was testifying in front of the Senate panel as talks on ending the three-month-old war that has engulfed the Middle East and triggered a global energy crisis have stalled.

He told the lawmakers that the US would agree to sanctions relief only ‌if Iran agrees to give up its nuclear activity.

"Right now, everything that's been discussed with them (Iran) is that … any sanctions relief is condition-based, which means it has to be in return for ⁠the reason why those sanctions were put in place in the first place, which is their nuclear program," Rubio told a Senate ‌hearing, the first of two where lawmakers closely questioned him ​on the Iran conflict.

Testifying in Congress publicly for the first time since the war began, Rubio said there would be sanctions relief for Iran only if they agree to give up their nuclear activities.

"Iran is being sanctioned because they've highly enriched uranium. Iran is being sanctioned because of their nuclear activities. If they agree to give up those things, there will be sanctions relief associated with their commitment and compliance with those agreements," he said. Rubio testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday morning at the first of four hearings this ​week on the Trump administration's request to cut the ⁠foreign affairs budget by 30% to $36 billion, while planning a 50% increase in military spending to $1.5 trillion.

He appeared at a House of Representatives appropriations hearing later on Tuesday, and was to appear at two more hearings on Wednesday, as his fellow Republicans have shown signs of concern about the Iran war.

Rubio, who also serves as Trump's national security adviser, was a senator from Florida until January 2025, and lawmakers said they hoped their former colleague would spell out a strategy for ending ⁠the Iran conflict, which started ‌with strikes by the US and Israel on February 28.

At one point, Rubio declared, "The war is over," during a sharp exchange with Democratic Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, who disagreed.

(With Reuters inputs)