A Son Of Iran’s Late Supreme Leader Is A Possible Candidate To Replace His Father As War Rages

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei He had long been seen as a candidate for the position of the country’s next supreme ruler; even before the Israeli attack killed his father. the beginning of the war last week and although he has never been elected or appointed to a government position.

Mojtaba Khamenei, one of the secret figures of the Islamic Republic, has not been seen in public since Saturday, when Israel killed his 86-year-old father in an airstrike targeting the religious leader’s offices. Also killed was Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, a teenager from a family long linked to the country’s theocracy.

Khamenei is believed to be still alive and has probably gone into hiding. US and Israeli air strikes continue to hit IranHowever, state-run Iranian media did not report on his whereabouts.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s name continues to be circulated as a possible candidate to succeed his father, who has been criticized in the past as potentially creating a theocratic version of Iran’s former hereditary monarchy.

But now that his father and wife are considered by hard-liners as martyrs in the war against America and Israel, Khamenei’s stock has likely risen along with the aging clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts that will choose the country’s next religious leader.

Whoever is the leader will gain control of the Iranian military currently at war and control of its stockpile of highly enriched uranium that can be used to make nuclear weapons; if he decides.

Khamenei occupied a role similar to that of Ahmed Khomeini, the son of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini; “A combination of aide, confidant, gatekeeper and power broker,” according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based pressure group.

Born in the city of Mashhad in 1969, about 10 years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that would devastate Iran, Khamenei grew up with his father’s instigation against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

An official biography of Ali Khamenei’s life describes a moment when SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, broke into their home and beat the cleric. Mujtaba and Khamenei’s other children woke up later and were told that their father was going on vacation.

“But I told them, ‘There is no need to lie.’ I told them the truth,” the elder Khamenei said.

After the overthrow of the Shah, Khamenei’s family moved to Tehran, the capital of Iran. Khamenei would go on to fight with the Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion, a division of Iran’s paramilitary force, in the Iran-Iraq war. Revolutionary Guards This will enable many of its members to rise to powerful intelligence positions within the force, likely with the support of the Khamenei family.

His father became the religious leader in 1989 – and soon Mojtaba Khamenei and his family had access to billions of dollars and business assets spread across Iran’s many bonyads, or foundations financed from state industries and other riches once held by the Shah.

Working in offices in downtown Tehran, his own power grew along with that of his father. US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s began referring to the younger Khamenei as “the power behind the robe”. One cited the claim that Khamenei actually tapped his own father’s phone, serving as his “chief watchman” and building his own power base within the country.

In a 2008 cable, Khamenei “appears to be widely viewed within the regime as a capable and strong leader and administrator who may one day manage to achieve at least some of the national leadership; his father may also see him in that light,” while also noting his lack of theological qualifications and age.

But because of Mojtaba’s skills, wealth, and unique alliances, he is reportedly seen by some within the regime as a plausible candidate for co-leadership of Iran upon his father’s death; “Whether this death is soon or years later,” he said.

The U.S. Treasury said Khamenei worked closely with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, commanders of both the expeditionary Quds Force and the Basij, an all-volunteer force that violently suppressed nationwide protests in January.

The United States sanctioned him in 2019 during US President Donald Trump’s first term for trying to “advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and repressive domestic goals.”

These allegations include allegations that Khamenei behind the scenes supported the election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 and his controversial re-election in 2009, which sparked Green Movement protests.

Mehdi Karroubi, who was a presidential candidate in 2005 and 2009, accused Khamenei of being the “master’s son” and claimed that he interfered in both votes. His father reportedly said at the time that Khamenei was “not the son of a master, but a master himself.”

There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of Iran’s supreme leader, who has been the most important decision-maker since the country’s founding. 1979 Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini He died at the age of 86 after pioneering the revolution and leading Iran. Eight years of war with Iraq.

Now the new leader will take office after 12 days of war with Israel, and while the US-Israeli war with Iran is trying to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat and military power, he hopes that the Iranian people will also rise up against the Iranian theocracy.

The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has the final say on all state matters. He also serves as commander-in-chief of the nation’s military and the Guard, a U.S.-appointed paramilitary force. Declared a terrorist organization in 2019and which he authorized during his father’s reign.

The Guard, which leads what it calls the “Axis of Resistance,” a series of militant groups and allies aimed at opposing the United States and Israel in the Middle East, also has extensive wealth and assets in Iran. It also controls the country’s ballistic missile arsenal.