Iran's next supreme leader: Khamenei's hardline son Mojtaba
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Mojtaba Khamenei (C), son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in 2019. Photo: Saeid Zareian/dpa/picture alliance via Getty Images.
Mojtaba Khamenei will succeed his father, Ali Khameni, as Iran's next supreme leader, Iranian state media reported Sunday.
Why it matters: The move consolidates hardline control even as U.S. and Israeli strikes pound the country.
- The regime is at its most vulnerable state since the 1979 revolution, and critics have previously railed against Mojtaba's rise, citing his limited formal experience, modest theological credentials and the regime's aversion to dynastic rule.
What they're saying: Assembly of Experts issued a statement calling on the Iranian people to "keep unity and pledge allegiance to the new supreme leader."
- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pledged allegiance to the new leader and said it's "ready to fully obey" his commands, according to Tehran's Farns news agency.
The other side: President Trump acknowledged to Axios during a Thursday interview that the younger Khamenei was the most likely successor, but he made clear he found this outcome unacceptable.
- "Khamenei's son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment, like with Delcy [Rodriguez] in Venezuela," Trump told Axios.
Catch up quick: The U.S. and Israel killed Ali Khamenei in "major combat operations" after Iran refused to agree to a nuclear deal.
- The attacks also targeted Mojtaba and other senior officials, but the younger Khamenei survived.
- Ali Khamenei's top security adviser Ali Shamkhani, IRGC commander Mohammad Pakpour and Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh are dead, scrambling the top of the Iranian government.
The intrigue: Ali allegedly floated potential successors with stronger administrative and theological credentials, and Mojtaba wasn't among them, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
Mojtaba, Ali's second-eldest son, was born in 1969. His childhood was shaped by both the 1979 Iranian Revolution that toppled the previous dynasty and by his father's rise to power, first as president in 1981, then as supreme leader in 1989.
- A cleric, Mojtaba studied under the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, who called for killing Iranian youths who promoted "Western immorality."
Mojtaba joined the Revolutionary Guard at 17, serving during the Iran-Iraq War in the Habib Battalion.
- The battalion is a "notoriously ideological unit" led by one of the founders of Hezbollah, according to the Atlantic Council. Many of its alumni later became high-ranking members of the regime's security and intelligence bodies.
Between the lines: Mojtaba is expected to be more hardline than his father, and his ascent means the Iranian regime may get more repressive.
- He has close ties to some of the most "ideologically extremist clerics" who have been at the forefront of the regime's most violent crackdowns, per the Council.
- Mojtaba also allegedly engineered the 2005 election that installed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. In the 2009 election, protesters flooded the streets to insist Ahmadinejad didn't win again, and Mojtaba reportedly personally supervised how the IRGC crushed these demonstrations.
Zoom in: Mojtaba reportedly oversees a massive business empire of luxury properties and investments worldwide, according to Bloomberg.
- He does not list the investments under his name but has amassed wealth despite 2019 U.S. sanctions for his role in his father's inner circle.
- At the time, the Treasury said Mojtaba worked to "advance his father's destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives."
Go deeper: Israel targets Khamenei, top leaders in bid to bring down Iran's regime
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
Barak Ravid contributed reporting.
