Summary of this article
Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been appointed Iran’s new Supreme Leader following his father’s death in US-Israeli strikes.
The low-profile cleric has never held elected office but was widely believed to wield significant behind-the-scenes influence in Iran’s political system.
His selection is controversial as it resembles hereditary succession, a principle the Islamic Republic has historically rejected.
Amid the ongoing West Asia conflict between Iran and the joint forces of the USA and Israel, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes, has been chosen as the next Supreme Leader of Iran.
Just a week after his father’s death, Iran’s Assembly of Experts moved swiftly to name a successor. On Sunday, State television confirmed that Mojtaba Khamenei would take over as Supreme Leader. For years, he had been seen as a possible heir to the post despite never holding an elected office or formal government role.
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei
The second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 56-year-old Mojataba Khamenei, was born in Mashhad, a significant Shia religious centre in Iran.
Born in 1969 in northeastern Iran, some 10 years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that would sweep Iran, Khamenei grew up as his father agitated against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Born in 1969 in Mashhad, Mojtaba Khamenei grew up in a household shaped by political repression and revolution. An official biography of his father, Ali Khamenei, recounts how the Shah’s secret police, SAVAK, once stormed their home and beat the cleric for opposing the monarchy.
“But I told them, ‘There is no need to lie.’ I told them the truth,” the elder Khamenei was quoted as saying.
After the Iranian Revolution toppled Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the family moved to Tehran as the Islamic Republic took shape. As a young man, Mojtaba fought in the Iran–Iraq War with the Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion, a unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps whose members later rose to influential intelligence posts.
His father’s rise to power culminated in 1989 when Ali Khamenei became Iran’s supreme leader, placing the family at the centre of the country’s political and economic networks, including the powerful bonyads, foundations that control vast business assets linked to the state.
The young Khamenei also studied in Qom, Iran’s centre of Shi’ite theology, under the guidance of religious seminaries. He later joined the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Low-Key Heir
Mojtaba Khamenei has always been a secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, with little known about him apart from the fact that he has never been elected or appointed to a government position.
Khamenei was not seen publicly in the days after an Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father at the start of the war. Also killed in that strike were the younger Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy.
Despite his low profile, for years, there have been rumours that he held considerable influence behind the scenes in Iran.
For years, Mojtaba Khamenei was seen as a powerful yet largely unseen figure within Iran’s political system. U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s described him as “the power behind the robes.”
One cable cited allegations that he tapped his own father’s phone, acted as his “principal gatekeeper,” and had been quietly building a power base within the country, according to the Associated Press.
A 2008 cable said Khamenei “is widely viewed within the regime as a capable and forceful leader and manager who may someday succeed to at least a share of national leadership; his father may also see him in that light,” while also noting his relative youth and limited theological credentials.
“Mojtaba is, however, due to his skills, wealth, and unmatched alliances, reportedly seen by a number of regime insiders as a plausible candidate for shared leadership of Iran upon his father’s demise, whether that demise is soon or years in the future,” the cable added.
His name also surfaced in domestic political controversies. Critics alleged he worked behind the scenes to support the election of hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 and his disputed re-election in 2009, which triggered the Green Movement protests.
Among the most vocal critics was reformist cleric and presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi, who dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as “a master’s son” and accused him of interfering in both votes. His father reportedly pushed back at the time, saying Khamenei was “a master himself, not a master’s son.”
Controversial Succession
The young Khamenei’s selection is controversial. The Islamic Republic was founded in 1979 after the monarchy was overthrown, and its ideology is based on the principle that the supreme leader should be chosen for his religious standing and proven leadership, not through hereditary succession.
It goes against the Shia Islamic convention, which notes that blood lineage for the mantle is exclusively reserved for 12 divinely ordained Shia Imams, reported Hindustan Times.
It is due to this heredity law that Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s influential son, Ahmad, was passed over as successor and Khamenei was chosen.
In 2023, Khamenei had said in a speech, “dictatorship and hereditary government are not Islamic," as per the US-based think tank, Stimson Centre.
No Trump Card?
US President Donald Trump had told reporters last week that he had a couple of candidates in mind for the next leader of Iran. However, shortly after reports emerged, all of these candidates had perished in the military escalation in Iran.
Trump criticised Mojtaba Khamenei in an interview with Axios on Thursday, saying he should have a role in determining Iran’s next leader.
“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment,” Trump said. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
But Iran’s leadership moved ahead regardless. The decision by the Assembly of Experts to appoint Mojtaba Khamenei consolidates hardliner control in Tehran and signals defiance of Washington at a time of open conflict with the U.S. and Israel.
As supreme leader, Khamenei now sits at the apex of Iran’s Shiite theocratic system, with final authority over the military, the state and strategic policy. His elevation places him in command of a country already at war — and in control of Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium, material that could be used to build a nuclear weapon should he choose to pursue it.
With Mojtaba Khamenei’s official entry into Iran’s already volatile political landscape, the world is left asking one pressing question: Is the war far from over?
