Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was elected as the Supreme Leader of Iran. A religious official long considered one of the most influential but least visible figures in Iran’s political establishment has been named the country’s new supreme leader following the death of his father in a US-Israeli airstrike.
Mojtaba, 56, was elected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body that is constitutionally responsible for appointing the country’s highest political and religious authority.
Mojtaba’s name has periodically come up in political discussions in Iran, usually in connection with presidential elections or speculation about which candidates he might support. However, Mojtaba himself rarely entered into public political debates. His appearances were mostly limited to official ceremonies, national commemorations and religious gatherings covered by Iranian state media.
Mojtaba Khamenei is assuming the country’s leadership role at one of the most volatile times in modern Iranian history. The transition is taking place under direct threats from Israel, whose leaders have vowed to kill any Iranian leader chosen to succeed Khamenei.
“Any leader that the Iranian terrorist regime chooses to continue to lead the plan to destroy Israel, threatening the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and oppressing the Iranian people, will be a sure target for assassination, regardless of his name or where he is hiding,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on the X social network.
Mojtaba Khamenei was born on September 8, 1969 in the holy city of Mashhad. He is one of the six children of the former supreme leader, killed on February 28, who was the head of the state for more than three decades.
Due to his discretion, the young Khamenei has been the subject of intense speculation for years among the Iranian population and in diplomatic circles.
Some previously believed that he had the real power, behind the scenes, in his father’s office.
He is considered close to conservatives, especially because of his ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the ideological army of the Islamic Republic. This relationship dates back to his service in a combat unit at the end of the long Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988).
Regarding the religious question, he studied theology in Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught. He attained the rank of Khojatoleslam, a title given to middle-ranking clerics and below the rank of ayatollah, which was held by his father and Ruholah Khomeini.
His wife, Zahra Hadad-Adel, the daughter of the former parliament speaker, was also killed in the US-Israeli airstrikes that killed Ali Khamenei and his wife, according to Iranian authorities.
