An image shared on Facebook claims Iran’s Supreme Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared on Forbes cover.
Verdict: False
There is no evidence that Khamenei appeared on the cover of Forbes.
Fact Check:
Israel struck Iran on April 19, though refrained from a larger attack in order to avoid a larger scale war between the two nations, according to The New York Times.
Social media users are sharing a claim that Khamenei appeared on the cover of Forbes magazine. One user wrote, “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is featured on the cover of Forbes magazine with the caption ‘The Most Powerful Man in the World.'”
This claim, though, appears to be false. If Khamenei had appeared on the cover of Forbes, media outlets would have covered it, yet none have. A wider internet search also did not yield any results for the alleged cover. (RELATED: Viral X Image Showing Iranian Trucks Is Not Recent)
Check Your Fact also reviewed Forbes’ website and did not find any articles about Khamenei being the most powerful man in the world. The last available covers also do not showcase the Iranian leader, with the most recent issue featuring American businessman Todd Boehly.
Khamenei was most recently ranked 17th on Forbes’ 2018 list of the most powerful people in the world. A Forbes spokesperson told Check Your Fact that they “can confirm that the image in question is not a real Forbes cover and was never published on any of our platforms.”