Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, the man who may be chosen as Iran’s next supreme leader?

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ali Khamenei, could become Iran’s next supreme leader, with his security ties and long-standing influence determining his potential rise.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has chosen Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Saturday, as the next supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, according to reports in Iranian opposition media.

According to reports, Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, and one of his sons were among those killed in the airstrike that killed his father.

Khamenei survived US and Israeli airstrikes against Iran. His father, Ali Khamenei, was killed, two Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.

This has not yet been officially announced by the regime, but media outlets such as Iran International reported on Mojtaba’s selection, citing informed sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.

If this is confirmed, it would mark the prospect of a transfer of power from father to son at the top of the regime for the Islamic Republic.

So who is Mojtaba Khamenei, and why has her name loomed over succession politics for years?

Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, born in 1969 in the eastern religious city of Mashhad, is widely described by Iranian observers as a hard-line cleric who accumulated influence without an official portfolio, thanks to his father’s patronage.

He has rarely appeared in public, but has long been linked to the internal state apparatus through the Office of the Supreme Leader, the central system through which the main security, judicial, financial and appointment levers of the Islamic Republic pass.

Over the years, profiles have repeatedly described him as a gatekeeper with access to the regime’s most sensitive decision-making processes.

Mojtaba’s power is also linked to the security establishment. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, Mojtaba reportedly served in the Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion, a volunteer battalion linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

Support from security forces facilitates Mojtaba Khamenei’s journey

His security relations could also contribute to his rise to power at such a troubled time for Iran. The country now finds itself in a crisis environment following the assassination of Ali Khamenei, and several media outlets have presented the succession as being driven by the need for speed, cohesion and control of the system, particularly within the IRGC.

The Assembly of Experts, which was also hit by Israel’s airstrikes on Tuesday, reportedly met to finalize the nomination of the new supreme leader, just days after Khamenei’s death.

Mojtaba’s name became politically dangerous during the unrest following Iran’s disputed 2009 presidential election. For years, reformist figures and opposition activists have alleged that he played a behind-the-scenes role in coordinating repression and shaping decisions within the regime.

These claims, while difficult to independently verify, remain part of the public mythology surrounding Mojtaba and are one reason why his potential elevation has long been controversial.

There is also the question of administrative qualifications. The Iranian constitution provides for a supreme leader with a deep understanding and prominence in Islamic jurisprudence, although Ali Khamenei’s rise to power was made easier when the Assembly of Experts removed a clause requiring the supreme leader to be a ‘marja, a title given to the highest level of Twelver Shiite cleric, retroactively smoothing his position.

Mojtaba studied in the seminaries of Qom, but many profiles described him as a mid-ranking cleric rather than a high-ranking marja-level authority, fueling criticism of his candidacy in the past. However, if the Assembly of Experts was willing to bend the rules once to allow her father to rise to power, the same thing could happen to Mojtaba.

It would be ironic if the Islamic Republic, a regime that rose to power following an anti-monarchical revolution, would now construct its own hereditary line of succession, this time consisting of ayatollahs rather than shahs.