Iran’s Assembly of Experts has chosen Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to succeed his late father as supreme leader, cementing hard-line control more than a week after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an air strike, Iranian media reported.
The clerical body elevated the mid-ranking cleric, long seen as a power broker with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, following internal deliberations shaped by loyalty tests and wartime rhetoric. In a video message, council member Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir said the selection followed the elder Khamenei’s guidance that Iran’s top leader should be “hated by the enemy.” “Even the Great Satan (U.S.) has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir added, days after U.S. President Donald Trump called Mojtaba an “unacceptable” choice.
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The supreme leader holds the final word on state policy, from Iran’s foreign relations to its nuclear program. Western powers seek to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons; Iran says its program is for civilian purposes only.
Mojtaba Khamenei’s ascent formalizes a succession years in the making. He has never held an official government post, but built influence as his father’s gatekeeper and a figure trusted by security organs and their sprawling business networks. Analysts and sources familiar with Iran’s power structure have long described him as a pivotal presence behind the scenes. “He has strong constituency and support within the IRGC, in particular amongst the younger radical generations,” said Kasra Aarabi, head of research on the IRGC at United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based policy organization.
The United States sanctioned Mojtaba Khamenei in 2019, saying he represented the supreme leader “in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position” beyond work in his father’s office. The Treasury Department said he worked closely with the IRGC’s Quds Force and the Basij militia “to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”
At home, Mojtaba faces a public that has repeatedly challenged the state’s authority. He was a particular target for criticism during nationwide unrest in 2022 sparked by the death of a young woman in police custody after she was detained over dress-code violations. In 2024, a video of him suspending Islamic jurisprudence classes he taught in Qom fueled speculation about his intentions as the succession question loomed.
Questions about legitimacy may persist. Mojtaba holds the clerical rank of Hojjatoleslam, one step below Ayatollah — the title held by his father and by Islamic Republic founder Ruhollah Khomeini. Critics inside Iran have long rejected the prospect of dynastic succession in a system born out of the 1979 revolution that toppled a U.S.-backed monarchy.
With the Assembly’s decision, however, institutional backing has coalesced. Another leading contender, former President Ebrahim Raisi, died in a helicopter crash in 2024, narrowing the field and leaving Mojtaba the best-positioned insider. A 2007 U.S. diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks cited three Iranian sources who described him as a conduit to his father, underscoring his long-running role within the elite’s inner circle.
Mojtaba was widely believed by analysts to have supported the rise of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who won the presidency in 2005. He backed Ahmadinejad again in 2009 in a disputed election that triggered mass protests and a violent crackdown by the Basij and other security forces. Mehdi Karroubi, a moderate cleric who ran against Ahmadinejad, wrote to the elder Khamenei alleging Mojtaba’s interference; Khamenei rejected the claim.
Born in 1969 in the holy Shiite city of Mashhad, Mojtaba grew up as his father organized opposition to the Shah. He served in the Iran-Iraq war, studied under religious conservatives in Qom and has largely avoided public speaking, appearing mostly at loyalist rallies. He wears the black turban of a sayyed, signaling a family lineage traced to the Prophet Muhammad. His wife, the daughter of former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel, was killed in airstrikes last Saturday, Iranian media reported.
With his selection, Iran’s security establishment appears to have tightened its grip at a volatile moment at home and abroad. Whether Mojtaba Khamenei can consolidate authority — and at what cost — will shape Iran’s direction on protest, policy and nuclear diplomacy in the months ahead.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
