A 2008 United States (US) diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks contained claims about the medical history and political standing of Mojtaba Khamenei (
pic), the second-oldest son of former Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The classified State Department briefing, sent to the US Embassy in London, alleged that Mojtaba received medical treatment in the United Kingdom for what it described as an impotency problem.
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According to the document, he married in 2004 and subsequently made three extended visits to the UK for treatment.
It said a fourth visit lasting two months was later required.
The cable claimed the treatment took place at the Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals in London and that Mojtaba had faced pressure from his family to produce heirs.
According to the document, his wife became pregnant after the final stay in the UK and later gave birth to a healthy boy in Iran named Ali after his paternal grandfather.
The briefing also described Mojtaba as travelling domestically with his father and exercising what it termed a fair degree of control over access to the supreme leader.
It added that he was viewed within the regime as a capable and forceful figure with ties to senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders, although the report said he was weak in clerical terms and not expected to attain the rank of mujtahid or ayatollah through his own scholarship.
