Ayatollah Khamenei`s son, Mojtaba, will lead Iran

ArmInfo. First, the independent Iranian publication Iran International, and then the New York Times, citing sources, reported that the leading contender for the post of Supreme Leader of the Republic is Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war. This is not the first time he has been tipped to succeed his father.

According to the New York Times, the Council of Experts—the body responsible for selecting Iran's new Supreme Leader—was prepared to announce its decision as early as Wednesday morning, but delayed the announcement due to concerns that it would make Khamenei Jr. a new target for US and Israeli strikes.

Mojtaba Khamenei was considered a possible successor to his father back in the 2000s. Back then, media outlets called him one of the people closest to the Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was born in 1969 in Mashhad. After the 1979 revolution, the entire family moved to Tehran, where Ali Khamenei was appointed deputy defense minister.

In 1987, Mojtaba Khamenei graduated from high school. This was followed by military service, which coincided with the final two years of the war with Iraq. It was during this period that Mojtaba Khamenei became close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the opposition Iranian publication Iran International.

In 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei was appointed Supreme Leader of Iran. Meanwhile, Mojtaba received a religious education, and in 1999, he went to Qom, one of the main centers of Shiite Muslim theology, for further study.

In Qom, Mojtaba studied with conservative and ultra-conservative clerics. The Supreme Leader's son subsequently began teaching there, but never received the religious title of Ayatollah.

In the 2000s, Mojtaba married the daughter of Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, who served as Speaker of the Iranian Parliament from 2004 to 2008. WikiLeaks records indicate that the couple's first child, a son, was born in 2007. However, Mojtaba's wife and son were killed on the first day of the war—February 28—along with his parents, according to Iranian authorities. Mojtaba himself is alive: he was not in Tehran on the day of the strikes, Reuters reports, citing sources.

Abdolreza Davari, a politician close to Mojtaba Khamenei, has repeatedly stated that if the Ayatollah's son is elected as successor to the post of spiritual leader, he could become a figure similar to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

"He is extremely progressive and will sideline the hardliners," Davari told the NYT shortly before the war began.

Analysts, however, believe that Khamenei's choice would, on the contrary, mean a continuation of conservative policies.

"He has long been tipped as the successor, but he has disappeared from view over the past two years," Vali Nasr of Johns Hopkins University told the NYT. "If he is elected, it will mean that the much more hardline wing of the IRGC is now in charge."

"Mojtaba is the smartest choice right now because he is well-versed in managing and coordinating the work of the security forces and the military," Tehran-based analyst Mehdi Rahmati told the NYT. (BBC)