Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new supreme leader?
According to Iranian media reports, the religious establishment has chosen the 56-year-old mid-ranking cleric, who survived the US-Israeli air war on Iran, as his successor, a week after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike.
Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, a member of the council, said in a video released Sunday that a candidate was chosen based on guidance from Khamenei that Iran’s top leader should be “hated by the enemy.”
“Even the Great Satan (USA) had mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after US President Donald Trump said Mojtaba was an “unacceptable” choice for him.
Also read: Iran appoints Mojtaba Khamenei as religious leader to replace his murdered father
MY FATHER’S “DOORMAN”
Mojtaba amassed power under his father’s rule as a senior figure close to the security forces and the vast business empire they control. He opposed reformers who sought to engage with the West, trying to thwart Iran’s nuclear program.
His close ties to the elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) give him additional power over Iran’s political and security apparatus, and he wields influence behind the scenes as his father’s “caretaker,” sources familiar with the matter said.
“There is a strong constituency and support within the Revolutionary Guard, especially among the younger radical generation,” said Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based policy organization.
The religious leader has the final say on state matters, including foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear program. Western powers want to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian purposes only.
Mojtaba may face opposition from Iranians who have shown they are ready to stage mass protests to voice their demands for greater freedom despite a bloody crackdown by the authorities.
He was born in 1969 in the Shiite holy city of Mashhad and grew up while his father helped lead the opposition against the Shah. As a young man he served in the Iran-Iraq war.
Mujtaba was educated under religious conservatives at theological schools in Qom, Iran’s center of Shiite theological learning, and holds the rank of cleric of Hojjatoleslam.
He never held an official position in the government of the Islamic Republic. He appeared at loyalist rallies but rarely spoke publicly.
His role has long been a source of controversy in Iran; critics dismissed any hint of dynastic politics in a country that toppled a US-backed ruler in 1979.
Also read: US says it won’t hit Iran’s energy sector
US SANCTIONS
The U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mojtaba in 2019, saying that in addition to working in his father’s office, he “represented the religious leader in an official capacity, although he was never elected or appointed to a government position.”
The website stated that Khamenei had previously handed over some of his responsibilities to Mojtaba, and that Mojtaba had worked closely with the commander of the Quds Force of the Revolutionary Guard and the Basij, a religious militia affiliated with the Guard, “to further his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive internal goals.”
Mojtaba was a particular target of criticism from protesters in 2022 during riots over the death of a young woman in police custody after her arrest for allegedly violating the Islamic Republic’s strict dress code.
A video in which he announced the suspension of the Islamic jurisprudence lectures he gave in Qom in 2024 was widely shared, fueling speculation about the reasons for this.
The Mujtaba seyyid looks very much like his father and wears a black turban, indicating that his family’s lineage goes back to the Prophet Muhammad.
Critics say Mojtaba lacks the religious qualifications needed to be a religious leader; Hojjatoleslam is one level below the rank of Ayatollah, held by his father, Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic.
However, he remained within the framework, especially after the death of former President Ibrahim Reisi, one of the leading candidates for this role, in a helicopter crash in 2024.
A US diplomatic cable written in 2007 and published by WikiLeaks cited three Iranian sources who identified Mojtaba as a way to reach Khamenei.
Mojtaba was believed to be behind the sudden rise of conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected president in 2005.
Mojtaba supported Ahmadinejad when he won a second term in 2009 in a disputed election that resulted in anti-government protests that were violently suppressed by Basij and other security forces.
Mehdi Karroubi, a moderate cleric who participated in the elections, wrote a letter to Khamenei at the time, objecting to Mojtaba’s role in supporting Ahmadinejad. Khamenei denied the accusation.
Mojtaba’s wife, who was killed in last Saturday’s airstrikes, was the daughter of former parliamentary speaker Gholamali Haddadadel, a prominent conservative.
