Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ali Khamenei, is being heavily tipped to succeed his father as Iran's supreme leader. His appointment would pitch a hardliner into steering the Islamic republic through its most turbulent period in 48 years and signal that the government has no intention of changing course, particularly in its relations with the United States.
No official confirmation has been given, and the announcement may be delayed until after the funeral of Ali Khamenei, which was postponed on Wednesday. The son is believed to have been the choice of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Israeli defence minister, Gideon Saar, has warned he will be assassinated. Ayatollah Seyed Khatani, a member of the Assembly of Experts – the body that chooses the new supreme leader – said the assembly was close to selecting a leader.
Mojtaba Khamenei is rigid in his anti-western views and is not the candidate Donald Trump would have wanted. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that Iran was run by “religious fanatic lunatics”, and Khamenei's appointment is hardly likely to dispel that opinion. The choice is made by the 88-strong Assembly of Experts, which is picking from a field of six possible candidates. Trump has said the worst-case scenario would be if Khamenei's successor was “as bad as the previous person”.
Born in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei studied theology after graduating from high school and served in the Iran-Iraq war at the age of 17. He came to be recognised as a public figure in his own right in the late 1990s, after the landslide defeat of his father's preferred candidate in the 1997 presidential election. He was also seen as instrumental in suppressing the protests in 2009 that followed allegations of a rigged presidential election, with his name chanted in the streets as one of those responsible.
In 2022 he was given the title of ayatollah, essential to his promotion. By then he was a regular figure by his father's side at political meetings and played an influential role in the Islamic Republic's Broadcasting Corporation, as well as administering his father's substantial financial empire. His closest political allies include Ahmad Vahidi, the newly appointed IRGC commander; Hossein Taeb, a former head of the IRGC's intelligence organisation; and Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the current speaker of parliament.
The rumoured appointment and its hereditary nature have long been resisted by reformists. Former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi wrote in 2022 that news of the conspiracy had been heard for 13 years, questioning why it was not denied. The Assembly of Experts denounced the “meaninglessness of doubts” and said it would select only the most qualified and suitable candidate. Israel on Tuesday struck a building in the Iranian city of Qom, where the assembly was scheduled to meet, but the building was empty, according to IRGC-affiliated media.
