Iran names new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, Iranian state media report

Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, second son of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been named the new supreme leader of IranIranian state media reported on Sunday.

While the new supreme leader has never held elected office, the 57-year-old has operated quietly behind the scenes from his father’s office, cultivating influence across the security system, particularly within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Mojtaba Khamenei was selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, made up of 88 clerics and overseen by the 12-member Guardian Council, which acts as the oversight body of Iran’s constitution. Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 in an attack that also killed 40 other high-ranking Iranian officials.

When his father became supreme leader in 1989, Mojtaba Khamenei effectively became one of his closest collaborators. Over the years, he has been involved in running parts of the state apparatus, and his influence grew particularly after the 2009 political unrest known as the Green Revolution. He is believed to have played a role in coordinating elements of the government’s response: a brutal crackdown that included mass killings and arrests.

Mojtaba Khamenei He studied theology in Qom and served in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, during which he was wounded. During the war he developed close ties with the military services and the IRGC.

In Iran’s political system, the IRGC wields vast military, economic, and political power, and Mojtaba Khamenei’s authority comes largely from his proximity to power rather than his religious stature.

His election as supreme leader indicates that Iran’s ruling elite has chosen stability over experimentation at a time of extreme pressure. His deep ties to the Revolutionary Guard and security apparatus also suggest that the institutions driving Iran’s current war posture will retain strong influence in the next phase of leadership. It also marks something unprecedented in the Islamic Republic: a leadership transition that effectively keeps power within the same family.

Mojtaba Khamenei, who leads a secretive life, has never given a public speech and is rarely seen outside the home. As there are not many public records about him, his political views are not fully known, but many analysts consider him a hardliner. He was his father’s assistant and has been teaching at the seminary in Qom, Iran’s main clerical center, for about eight years.

Mojtaba Khamenei is married and has at least two children, a son and a daughter.

President Trump had previously spoken out against Mojtaba Khamenei, calling him a “lightweight” and has said that any supreme leader appointed without US approval “won’t last long.”