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3. Mojtaba Khamenei Succeeds His Father as Iran’s Supreme Leader

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, was elected Iran’s Supreme Leader on Sunday, succeeding his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed last Saturday at 86 after more than three decades as the country’s head of state.

The elder Khamenei had denied in 2024 that such a dynastic succession could take place, given that the Iranian Revolution ended centuries of hereditary monarchy in 1979.

Born on September 8, 1969, in the holy city of Mashhad, Mojtaba Khamenei is one of the six children of the former supreme leader and the only one to maintain a public profile despite holding no official position.

Because of his discretion during official ceremonies and in the media, his real influence has been the subject of intense speculation for years among the Iranian public and within diplomatic circles.

The cleric, who wears the black turban of the “seyyed” — descendants of the Prophet Muhammad — has been described by some as the real power broker operating behind the scenes within the office of the supreme leader, the center of power in Iran.

He is considered close to conservatives, notably because of his ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This relationship dates back to his service in a combat unit at the end of the Iran–Iraq War.

Never elected

The United States Department of the Treasury said in 2019, when imposing sanctions on him, that Mojtaba Khamenei “officially represented the Supreme Leader, although he has never been elected or appointed to a government position, aside from his role within his father’s office.”

Ali Khamenei had “delegated part of his leadership responsibilities” to his son, “who worked closely with the commander of the Quds Force as well as with the Basij to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and repressive domestic objectives,” the U.S. Treasury said.

Opponents have notably accused him of playing a role in the violent crackdown that followed the re-election of ultraconservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, which triggered a large protest movement.

According to an investigation by Bloomberg, Mojtaba Khamenei accumulated significant wealth by building a vast network of shell companies abroad.

On the religious level, he studied theology in the holy city of Qom where he also taught.

He reached the rank of hojatoleslam, a title given to mid-ranking clerics, lower than the rank of ayatollah held by his father and Ruhollah Khomeini.

His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel — the daughter of a former parliament speaker — was also killed in the U.S.–Israeli strikes that led to the deaths of the supreme leader and his wife, according to Iranian authorities.

Israel’s defense minister, Israel Katz, warned on Wednesday that any successor to Ali Khamenei would become “a target.”