Mojtaba Khamenei appointed as Iran’s new supreme leader after father’s death
Mojtaba Khamenei became Iran’s supreme leader following the death of Ali Khamenei and heightened tensions due to the US attack on Israel.
- Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen as Iran’s new supreme leader following the death of his father.
- Experts believe this choice was symbolic of the loss of family members killed in the war.
- The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is expected to assume significant power as the new leadership takes hold.
- President Donald Trump expressed disappointment with Iran’s choice of new leader.
More than a week after Mojtaba Khamenei’s death, the installation of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s supreme leader was inevitable, according to two experts on Iranian politics.
Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow specializing in Iranian politics at the Middle East Institute, told USA TODAY that Mojtaba Khamenei’s “name had been mentioned as a possible successor for many years, but his father had always opposed him coming to power” after a group of clerics nominated his son to the top post as the U.S. and Israel’s war against Iran escalates.
“This was not preordained, but the circumstances made it possible,” Vatanka said.
Meanwhile, Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection has infuriated President Donald Trump, who believes he and his regime should have had a say in choosing Iran’s next leader.
Iranian diplomats confirmed to the Guardian on March 11 that 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei was injured in the first airstrike on February 28, killing his father and several family members. The young Ayatollah Khamenei has yet to make any public statement since being named his successor.
Hadi Ghami, founder and executive director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), believes Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to provide Iran with “a degree of political stability” amid the ongoing chaos of war and shelling.
Ghami said Khamenei “may be in hiding, which only adds further uncertainty and speculation to his whereabouts.”
Ghami described Mojtaba Khamenei as a “mysterious figure who could never become a charismatic leader like his father,” who was known for his long lectures and “ability to inspire people through oratory.”
A week ago, Vatanka said he believed Alireza Alafi, a key member of Khamenei’s new three-member Guidance Council to hold power until a successor is chosen, was the frontrunner to become Iran’s new supreme leader.
However, the Iranian Council of Experts, made up of 88 Shiite Muslim clerics, was charged with choosing a new leader. Batanka said they selected Mojtaba Khamenei, a mid-ranking cleric with influence within Iran’s security forces and major business connections, whom they considered a hardliner like his father.
Experts have different views on why Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen as Iran’s supreme leader
Vatanka believes Mojtaba Khamenei may have been chosen as a ritual because he lost his father, mother, wife and other family members in the first attack of the war on February 28.
“For now, he is just a symbolic figure,” Vatanka said of Mojtaba Khamenei. “The US killing of his father gave hardliners an incentive to accelerate things and push him into leadership.”
Gami takes a different view. In his view, Mojtaba Khamenei grew up in an “oligarchic group” and now runs the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which oversees the country’s military and economy.
“The first time we heard about him and his plots was around 2005, because so much of Iran’s domestic policy was connected to him,” Ghami said of Mojtaba Khamenei. “He was very similar to where (Vladimir) Putin was in the KGB hierarchy before he became the leader of Russia.”
Experts believe Mojtaba Khamenei will emerge as Iran’s leader
Mr. Vatanka and Mr. Ghami believe that for the foreseeable future, Islamic revolutionaries will largely call the shots in Iran’s war against the United States and Israel, perhaps as Mojtaba Khamenei settles into the leadership role.
“Holding a title in itself does not automatically give you power. It will take time,” Vatanka said. “His work is due to the Revolutionary Guards. The Revolutionary Guards put him there. They fired missiles, they launched drones.”
Vatanka added that the Revolutionary Guards and the Supreme Leadership sometimes complement each other.
“I think it’s that cabal that’s running the show,” Gamemi said. “They have the most to lose if the Islamic Republic collapses.”
President Trump furious over selection of new Iranian leader
Iran’s selection of the young Ayatollah Khamenei as its new leader has upset President Trump.
“I think they made a big mistake” in appointing Ayatollah Khamenei’s son to run the government, President Trump said in an interview with NBC News on March 9. “I don’t know if that’s going to last. I think they made a big mistake.”
Batanka said Iran’s hardline leaders want to quickly elect the younger Ayatollah Khamenei to the top, seeking revenge for the ongoing war. Vatanka quoted President Trump on ABC News on March 8, saying that if Iran doesn’t get Trump’s approval first, the new leader “won’t last long.”
“I think Trump probably wants to kill him,” Vatanka concluded of Iran’s new leader. “What else can I say?”
