Why Iran’s choice of supreme leader signals defiance against the U.S. and Israel

TEHRAN — The elevation of Mojtaba Khamenei to the title of supreme leader brings to Iran’s top job a hard-line figure who is clearly his father’s son in charting a challenging path for the country.

“The rise of Mojtaba Khamenei is not just a succession, it is a provocation; it is a defiant middle finger to Trump,” said Ali Vaez, head of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group think tank, adding that his election was “a declaration that the Islamic Republic will respond to pressure with defiance, not reform.”

Dismissed by President Trump as a “loser” and an “unacceptable choice”, Khamenei, 56, was chosen on Monday by the Iran Assembly of Experts, an 88-member religious body, to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the US and Israeli offensive.

World markets reacted with alarm to Khamenei’s rise, interpreting it as a sign that the war would continue beyond the “four or five weeks” promised by Trump.

“This is the last act of resistance emerging from the grave of the late Khamenei,” said Ellie Geranmayeh, a senior member of the European Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on Iran. “This also sends a strong message to Trump that his bombings and threats are not delivering the regime change he ostensibly wants.

“Not only will he carry his father’s legacy of deep distrust of the United States and Israel,” he added, “but he will also be haunted by personal revenge, given the murders of his mother, father, wife and child in the opening attacks of this war.”

Khamenei will preside over an exhausted people battered by years of sanctions and back-to-back conflicts with Israel and the United States. Many of the country’s 93 million people were deeply dissatisfied with the harsh and often corrupt rule that characterized his father’s more than 36-year reign. Nationwide protests in January shook the government, which used lethal force and killed thousands, if not tens of thousands, of protesters.

The appointment marked a closing of ranks among Iran’s leaders as the war against the Islamic Republic entered its second week. Iran’s UN Ambassador said 1,332 civilians were killed, including 200 children and 11 healthcare workers.

Senior Iranian politicians (president, foreign minister and parliament speaker) sent Khamenei their enthusiastic congratulations. Ali Larijani, head of the Supreme National Council and the country’s de facto leader during the war, said Khamenei had grown up in his “grandfather’s school of thought” and would use those teachings to lead the nation.

As the army pledged allegiance, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with whom Khamenei served during the Iran-Iraq war, hailed it as “a new dawn and the beginning of a new phase in the history of the Islamic Revolution and the Islamic Republic.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin also arrived from Moscow I sent congratulations“Russia has been and will remain a reliable partner of the Islamic Republic.”

Despite rumors that his father opposed his candidacy for fear of turning the revolutionary Islamic system of government into a hereditary one, Khamenei was seen for years as a likely – or even likely – successor. But he still kept a low profile, gave no interviews or public speeches, and held no official government position.

After his service in the Revolutionary Guard, he studied at a seminary in Qom and wore the black sayyid turban, indicating his lineage to the Prophet Muhammad.

Like his father, Khamenei rises to office without the necessary religious qualifications. He is not an ayatollah of the rank of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic and his father’s mentor.

Ali Khamenei was also not an Ayatollah, as required by the constitution, when he was elected as religious leader, but he later received this title. Khamenei is the one hoccet-ul IslamHe is one step below the Ayatollah.

Hamidriza Taraghi, one of the analysts who is thought to be close to Ali Khamenei, said that the expectation is that his son will adopt a tougher line than his father, which will alienate anyone who recommends rapprochement with the USA and the West from the government.

“Tolerance among so-called reformers has only made America bolder, so no placing these people in top positions or allowing policies that open to the West,” Taraghi said. “He will remain as determined as his late father against the Zionist regime and will not bow to both internal and external pressures.”

Geranmayeh, the Iran expert, added that Ali Khamenei’s followers would expect his son to follow his father’s path “but with potentially greater challenges to restore deterrence against the United States and Israel – something Ali Khamenei lost in his final years.”

On Monday, Iranian state television channels broadcast rallies across the country, where masses gathered in main squares to express their loyalty. Thousands of people gathered in Enghelab Square in Tehran and chanted “We will sacrifice ourselves for you, O Khamenei!” he shouted.

Others were less excited.

“What can he do? Everything is at a standstill. He doesn’t even have an office to work and run the country,” said Azizullah, a grocery store owner in Tehran who declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation.

“It doesn’t matter. They chose him, so he will be the next target to be assassinated,” he said.

Azizullah cited Israel’s repeated threats that it would kill whoever is appointed as the next religious leader. Trump on Sunday said any leader must be approved by the US

In an interview with ABC, Trump said, “He won’t be able to stay in office very long if he doesn’t get approval from us. We want to make sure we don’t have to go back every 10 years when there isn’t a president like me who can’t do that.”

Still, Trump said he would defer to figures loyal to the old government “to elect a good leader.”

“There are a lot of people who could qualify for this,” he said.

But some in Iran say the religious leader is irrelevant.

“His predecessor was not important to me,” said Mehdi, an information technology specialist who works near Enghelab Square. “The new one will not benefit me or my family.”