Trump says Iran's Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei alive but 'very seriously' wounded

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is alive but has sustained severe injuries to the left side of his body.

"He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing," Trump told political commentator Glenn Beck.

He said that if Khamenei is deceased, the Iranian government is "putting on a pretty good show" by claiming to consult with him regularly.

Trump also predicted that the war with Iran, which began on Feb. 28 with US and Israeli strikes, will conclude "fairly soon," repeating his claims that the US has successfully reopened the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has said that the strategic waterway will not be reopened until the US accepts Tehran's conditions and returns to a framework agreement reached this June.

Trump said 10 million barrels of oil went through the strategic waterway on Tuesday, with 22 vessels transiting safely overnight.

On Tuesday, he claimed all mines were successfully removed or detonated in the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz. Iran, however, denied this, saying that no one except Iran knows the location of mines.

"We had the victory in Venezuela, and we're going to have a big victory here very soon," said Trump, referring to the Jan. 3 US operation on the South American country.

Trump separately told Al Jazeera that economic warfare and military strikes on Iran are "both effective." On Monday, his administration launched Operation Economic Outcast, a sweeping sanctions campaign aimed at further isolating Iran from the global financial system.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that Washington seeks to sever Iran's economic lifelines, describing the campaign as the "economic asphyxiation" of the Iranian government.

Trump also told the network in a telephone interview that he is "not in a hurry" for the Iran talks to resume, saying: "I have no time schedule, none."

Polls in the US have shown the war is increasingly unpopular with the American public, especially with rising prices due to stalled waterways.

In mid-June, Iran and the US, with Pakistani and Qatari mediation, signed a 14-point framework agreement in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. The memorandum included provisions for ending hostilities, reopening the strait, lifting a US naval blockade, and beginning a 60-day negotiation process.

Tehran has accused the US of failing to implement key provisions of the memorandum.