Pro-nuclear hardliner to infertility treatment: What we know about Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's next Supreme Leader

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei, son of slain leader Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader. He was born on September 8, 1969, in the holy city of Mashhad in eastern Iran. At just 17, he joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and reportedly fought in the Habib Battalion during the final years of the Iran-Iraq War. He is rooted in IRGC more than his father and IRGC has issued a statement pledging allegiance to him, ruling out reports of rift. His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, also died in the US-Israeli strikes that killed the supreme leader, according to Iranian authorities.

Unlike previous Iranian supreme leaders, Mojtaba’s religious credentials have long been debated. He studied theology in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught. He was widely known as a Hojjatoleslam, a mid-level clerical rank, rather than a senior Ayatollah traditionally considered suitable for the position. However, his selection as Supreme Leader shows how he consolidated power. Though, contenders for the top position included Alireza Arafi, one of the three members of the interim council running the country, hardliner Mohsen Araki, and even Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic in 1979. Opponents have notably accused Mojtaba of playing a role in the violent crackdown that followed the re-election of ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, which triggered a vast protest movement.

Long before his official appointment, Mojtaba Khamenei reportedly ran the Supreme Leader’s office like a "fortress." The cleric, who has a salt-and-pepper beard and the black turban of the "seyyed", descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, has been presented by some as the real boss. He proved to be a central link between intelligence operations and IRGC appointments but always worked from behind the scenes. Some reports indicates that he controls a global property and asset empire worth over $3 billion. A Bloomberg report also claimed that Mojtaba Khamenei has amassed wealth estimated at more than $100 million.

If US analysts are to be believed, Mojtaba Khamenei is more favorable toward developing nuclear weapons than his father, Ali Khamenei. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote that if Mojtaba becomes leader, he and the IRGC might decide Iran should move quickly to obtain nuclear weapons to deter future US-Israeli attacks. He could adopt a more aggressive stance on Iran’s nuclear programme. Additionally, leaked diplomatic cables revealed he made four trips to private hospitals in the United Kingdom between 2004 and 2008 for infertility treatment. This is on the basis of 2008 US State Department cable from the U.S. Embassy in London, later released by WikiLeaks.

Mojtaba Khamenei was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in 2019 during President Donald Trump's first term, stating that the Iranian represented the supreme leader "despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father". Ali Khamenei had "delegated a part of his leadership responsibilities" to his son "who worked closely" with Iranian security forces "to advance his father's destabilising regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives", it said. His father Ali Khamenei was killed in striked by US-Israeli forces and Trump has warned that new leader won't last long “without his approval.” Israel has also warned that new successor will be its “target.”