Just over a week after Israel killed Iran’s Ali Khamenei, a new supreme leader has been chosen.
Despite the Assembly of Experts’ buildings coming under US-Israeli attack, they announced on Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei’s son, is the country’s new leader.
The 56-year-old is widely seen as a hardliner within Iran, with opposition channel Iran International claiming he was pushed for the top job by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
His appointment during the continuing onslaught by the US and Israel is seen as an act of defiance, both against the killing of his father and in pushing back against calls for compromise.
Mojtaba was born in the city of Mashhad in 1969 as the second son of Ali Khamenei and Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, who also died following injuries sustained last week.
At the time of his birth, Iran was still ruled by Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, who would be overthrown in mass protests largely led by Motjaba’s father and the Islamic Republic’s first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomenei, in 1979.
He would come of age during the Iran-Iraq war, a conflict that left up to a million Iranians dead, and would serve as part of the IRGC in the closing years of the war, before going on to study Islamic theology.
Motjaba’s time in the IRGC would prove influential.
As part of his service in the Habib Ibn Mazahir Battalion, a volunteer-linked faction in the IRGC, he built up a range of contacts with figures who would rise to senior positions in Iran’s security and intelligence apparatus, including Hossein Taeb, the future head of the IRGC’s Intelligence Organisation.
Corridors of power
Khamenei has generally maintained a relatively low profile in Iran, continuing to work as a teacher in Qom and shunning public office.
However, behind the scenes, he was reported to hold far more influence.
In the first decade of the 21st century, he became an ally of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and was accused of helping mastermind both the claimed rigging of the 2009 election and the crackdown on protesters that followed.
Even at the time, he was highly controversial in Iran’s political establishment, with one politician telling the Guardian in 2009 that his alleged secretive influence was frustrating senior figures.
“Mojtaba is the commander of this coup d’etat. The basiji are operating on Mojtaba’s orders, but his name is always hidden in all of this. The government never mentions him,” the Iranian politician said, referring to an IRGC branch focused on internal security.
“Everyone is angry about this. The maraji [Iran’s most senior ayatollahs] and the clerics are angry, the conservatives are very angry and strongly critical of Mojtaba. This situation cannot continue with so many people on top against it.”
There was also controversy over Khamenei’s wealth.
According to a Bloomberg investigation, Khamenei owns luxury houses in the UK worth more than $138m through shell companies, including 11 properties on The Bishops Avenue, a north London street nicknamed Billionaire’s Row.
He also reportedly has investments in Tehran, Dubai and Frankfurt.
Controversial choice
Khamenei being chosen as the supreme leader would likely be controversial within Iran for a number of reasons.
As the son of the previous leader, some would see his appointment as going against republican principles, especially within a political establishment that came to power by overthrowing a monarchy and rejecting hereditary rule.
His lack of experience – he has never held public office – is another possible controversial factor.
An article released by the Tehran Times in January 2025 cited Ali Khamenei as being resolutely opposed to his son taking over from him in the case of his death.
It also cited an academic who claimed the West had continued “to peddle this narrative of a dynastic succession” intending to discredit “the legitimacy of Iran’s institutions, fostering an image of an undemocratic state”.
Regardless, with the situation in Iran as febrile as it is, making bets about any long-term ruler may be risky.
Source: MEE
