TEHRAN: Iran’s Assembly of Experts has elected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s next supreme leader, Arab and Israeli media claims.
The move, which bypasses longstanding clerical traditions against hereditary succession, was pushed through under immense pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the sources. The decision comes just days after the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes, a cataclysmic event that has plunged the Islamic Republic into its most severe crisis since the 1979 revolution .
The Assembly of Experts, an 88-member body of clerics responsible for appointing the supreme leader, was reportedly targeted by airstrikes in both Tehran and the holy city of Qom in recent days . While the full extent of casualties among its members remains unclear, the strikes had cast doubt on whether the body could safely convene to formalize a succession . Despite these security challenges, sources indicate that a rump session was held to confirm the 56-year-old Mojtaba as the new leader .
Mojtaba Khamenei, a mid-level cleric who has never held formal government office, has long been considered a powerful backstage player with deep and influential ties to the IRGC and its Basij volunteer force . However, his ascent to the mantle of leadership is highly controversial. The Islamic Republic was founded in opposition to the hereditary monarchy of the Shah, and father-to-son succession is frowned upon in Shia tradition .
