US Vice President JD Vance says evidence suggests that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei is still alive, although Washington is unsure, according to Al Jazeera.

“We think that he’s alive. We don’t know, of course,” Vance says in an interview with commentator Vince Coglianese. “I’ve never seen him. I haven’t seen him on camera recently. The best evidence we have suggests that he is alive.”

Asked who is in charge within Iran, the US vice president says, “It’s a very confused system”.

“I could give you an answer. It would be at best a guess because you have a number of different constituencies. You have the hardliners, you have the conservatives, you have the moderates, you have the clerics and all of these people are involved in the decision-making process,” he adds.

“And then of course you have the new supreme leader, who is very detached,” added Vance. “He’s not involved day-to-day; he’s not going on American Sunday shows and talking about these negotiations.”