Iran Defies Trump, Elevates Khamenei’s Son Mojtaba As Successor

DUBAI, March 9 (Reuters) – Iran’s religious leadership has opted for confrontation rather than compromise over appointing Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ali Khamenei. District officials say the move is a direct rebuke to US President Donald Trump, who declared his son “unacceptable.”

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli attack at the beginning of the conflict, which is now in its second week.

His appointment as Mojtaba’s successor by the Assembly of Experts leaves conservatives firmly in control in Tehran; It’s a gamble that could reshape Iran’s war with the United States and Israel and have repercussions far beyond the Middle East.

“Mojtaba’s takeover is the same tactic,” said Alex Vatanka, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute.

“It is a great humiliation for the United States to carry out an operation of this scale, to risk so much, and to end up killing an 86-year-old man and replacing him with his radical son.”

Under Iran’s complex theocratic system, the supreme leader is the ultimate authority on foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear program, including guiding the elected president and parliament.

Analysts say the selection of Mojtaba, a fiercely strict cleric whose wife, mother and other family members were also killed in US-Israeli attacks, sends a clear message: Iran’s leadership has rejected any possibility of compromise to preserve the system and sees no way forward other than conflict, revenge and resilience.

Mojtaba will face enormous internal and external pressure from a disgruntled population and escalating conflict, but he is expected to move quickly to consolidate his power, insiders say.

This would likely mean expanding the powers of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, tougher internal controls and a sweeping crackdown to crush dissent.

“The world will miss his father’s era,” a regional official close to Tehran told Reuters. “Mojtaba will have no choice but to show an iron fist… even if the war is over, there will be severe internal pressures.”

This stance came after months of deepening civil unrest, the bloodiest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, which had already weakened the Islamic Republic before the war began.

Iran was grappling with a battered economy, rising inflation, currency collapse and rising poverty, as well as tightening repression that fueled public anger and protests; repression now looks set to intensify under wartime rule.

Another Iranian source familiar with the situation on the ground said that difficult days await the Mojtaba administration with much tighter internal controls, intensified pressure at home and a more aggressive, hostile stance abroad.

Paul Salem, a senior researcher at the Middle East Institute, said Mojtaba is not a figure who can reach an agreement with the United States or change direction diplomatically.

“Nobody who comes forward now will be able to compromise,” Salem said. “This is a tough choice in a tough time.”

In the eyes of Iranian clerics, many of whom call America the “Great Satan,” the assassination of Khamenei, the Islamic Republic’s highest religious authority, elevated him to the status of “martyrdom.”

Clerics describe the slain leader as a heroic figure and liken him to Imam Hussein, the Shiite symbol of sacrifice and resistance to oppression.

“Mojtaba is even worse and tougher than his father,” said former US diplomat and Iran expert Alan Eyre, adding that he was the Guard’s preferred candidate. “He’ll have a lot of revenge to take.”

This account carries risks. Israel warned that Khamenei’s successors would also be targets, while Trump said the war could only end if Iran’s military leadership and ruling elite were eliminated.

Mojtaba, 56, a powerful middle-ranking cleric, has long opposed reformist groups advocating relations with the West. His close ties to senior clerics and the Revolutionary Guard, which dominates Iran’s security forces and economy, give him influence over the state’s political and coercive security institutions.

Analysts say Ali Khamenei spent years operating as Ali Khamenei’s caretaker and in practice a “mini-supreme leader”, amassing influence under his father’s rule as a key figure within the security apparatus and the vast business empire he controls.

Its rise comes at a time when the US-Israeli campaign against Iran has intensified, with joint strikes hitting fuel depots and other targets inside Iran, while Iranian missiles and drones are expanding the conflict by striking Gulf states.

Mojtaba was educated under conservative clergy at the seminaries in Qom, the heartland of Shiite theological learning, and holds the rank of cleric of Hojjatoleslam.

The US Treasury sanctioned Mojtaba in 2019, saying he represented the religious leader in an official capacity despite never holding an elected or official government post.

A Gulf source familiar with the regional government’s thinking said of Mojtaba’s appointment: “This shows Trump and Washington that Iran will not back down, they will fight to the end.”

Salem of the Middle East Institute likened Iran’s course to Iraq under Saddam Hussein after 1991 or Syria under Bashar al-Assad after 2012; these governments had survived years of war and isolation but continually lost control.

“They’re doubling down on the hard line,” Salem said. “Internally, the situation is dire and deeply destabilizing.” (Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi; Writing by Samia Nakhoul Nakhoul; Editing by Alex Richardson)