Tehran (TDI): Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old second son of the decapitated Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the third supreme leader of the country.
The announcement, made on Sunday, comes eight days after Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israel airstrikes on Tehran on February 28, the strikes reportedly killed Mojtaba’s mother, wife, and one of his sisters. Mojtaba was not present and hence survived.
Mojtaba Khamenei, has spent his entire adult life at the heart of Iranian power and almost entirely out of sight. He served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran-Iraq War. From 1999 onward, he served as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Supreme Leader for Political and Security Affairs.
پیام تبریک به مناسبت انتخاب شایسته حضرت آیهالله سید مجتبی حسینی خامنهای بهعنوان سومین رهبر معظم انقلاب اسلامی، همزمان با اولین شب پر برکت قدر…
عهد می بندیم برای دفاع از حقوق ملت بزرگ ایران، پیشبرد منافع و امنیت ملی، و تحقق اهداف عالیه انقلاب اسلامی لحظه ای از پا ننشینیم. pic.twitter.com/SPxAYbYieu— Seyed Abbas Araghchi (@araghchi) March 9, 2026
Mojtaba is often described as enigmatic and at the same time, one of the most influential figures in Iran’s power corridors. He is known to have kept close links with IRGC, which many believe calls the shots in the country.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics, urged the Iranian people to stand behind the newly chosen leader and “keep unity,” while the leadership of the Iranian forced pledge allegiance.
Mojtaba Khamenei never made a public speech, never led a ministry, and rarely appeared in public yet his influence on Iranian politics was felt nonetheless. He is widely believed to have engineered the 2005 election that brought Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.
The US Treasury sanctioned him in 2019 for advancing what it described as “destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”
Read More: Iran Launches Fresh Missile Barrage After Mojtaba Khamenei Becomes New Supreme Leader
President Donald Trump, who last week called Mojtaba a “lightweight” and declared his selection “unacceptable,” suggested he expected to have a role in choosing Iran’s leadership.
“They are wasting their time,” Trump told Axios. “I have to be involved in the appointment.” He added that the new leader “is not going to last long” without US approval.
One Iranian Assembly member argued that a leader who is “hated by the enemy” is precisely what Iran needs in wartime.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian hailed the appointment as a reflection of national unity and resilience. “This valuable choice reflects the will of the Islamic community,” he wrote on Telegram.
