Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei as new supreme leader – what will this mean for the war?

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen to replace his father as Supreme Leader of Iran.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba vanished from the public eye in the days after an Israeli airstrike targeting government offices killed his 86-year-old father at the start of the war.

Mojtaba’s wife of more than 20 years, Zahra Haddad Adel, was also killed in the same strike.

Now, the younger Khamenei will have a central say in Iran’s war strategy, with the country’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answering directly to him.

The announcement of the new Ayatollah came after signs of a rift among officials as Iran awaited the decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects the supreme leader.

His candidacy may have been indirectly boosted by US President Donald Trump, who criticised the younger Khamenei in an interview and insisted that he be involved in selecting 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, referring to his operation that saw the US military seize former Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.

‘Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me. We want someone who will bring harmony and peace to Iran.’

The idea of having Mojtaba replace his father had been criticised as potentially creating a theocratic version of Iran’s former hereditary monarchy.

The younger Khamenei has gained control not only of an Iranian military now at war but also a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon – should he choose to decree it.

Before his selection, he had been a combination of aide-de-camp, confidant, gatekeeper and power broker, according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based pressure group.

Who is Mojtaba Khamenei?

Born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad, some 10 years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that would sweep Iran, the younger Khamenei grew up as his father agitated against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

An official biography of Ali Khamenei recounts a moment when the shah’s secret police, the Savak, broke into their home and beat the cleric.

Woken up after, Mojtaba and the rest of Mr Khamenei’s children were told their father was going on holiday.

‘But I told them, ‘There is no need to lie.’ I told them the truth,’ Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying.

After the fall of the Shah, the family moved to Tehran, Iran’s capital, before Mojtaba’s father fought in the Iran-Iraq War.

His father became the supreme leader in 1989, and soon Mojtaba and his family had access to the billions of dollars and business assets spread across Iran’s many bonyads, or foundations, funded from state industries and other wealth once held by the shah.

His own power rose alongside his father’s, working within his offices in downtown Tehran. US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s began referring to the younger Khamenei as ‘the power behind the robes’.

Mojtaba Khamenei has worked closely with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, both with commanders of its expeditionary Quds Force and its all-volunteer Basij that violently suppressed nationwide protests in January, the US Treasury has said.

What does this mean for the war?

The new leader will come on board after the 12-day war with Israel, and as a US-Israeli war with Iran is seeking to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat and military power, hoping also that the Iranian people will rise up against the Iranian theocracy.

The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state.

Trump’s past discontent with Mojtaba as a choice to replace his father means the new Ayatollah could face intense targeting and more threats to his life if the war continues.

In the meantime, he serves as the commander-in-chief of the country’s military and the Guard, a paramilitary force that the United States designated a terrorist organisation in 2019, and which his father empowered during his rule.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.