Mojtaba Khamenei replaces late father as Iran's supreme leader

TEHRAN

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei who has been appointed as the new head of the Islamic Republic, is a discreet figure who offers continuity of his father's hardline leadership.

The 56-year-old had no official post during his father's rule, but was speculated to be acting behind the scenes to pull strings at the heart of power in Iran.

He is regarded as close to conservatives, notably because of his ties with the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which swiftly pledged allegiance to the new leader.

The Islamic Republic's third supreme leader also received endorsements from President Masoud Pezeshkian, the armed forces and the judiciary within hours of his appointment.

U.S. President Donald Trump expressed displeasure on March 9 over Iran's appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, calling it "a big mistake."

"I don't know if it's going to last ... I think they made a mistake," Trump told NBC News. He had earlier told the New York Post he was "not happy" with the choice.

“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump also said.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned on March 8 that Iran's next supreme leader would not last long without his approval.

Trump had previously demanded a say in the appointment and dismissed the younger Khamenei as an unacceptable "lightweight.”

"He's going to have to get approval from us," Trump told ABC News on, referring to Iran's next leader. "If he doesn't get approval from us he's not going to last long."

Because of his discretion at official ceremonies and in the media, Khamenei's true influence has been the subject of intense speculation for years among the Iranian population as well as in diplomatic circles.

He was named supreme leader by Iran's top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, in a statement published shortly after midnight.

Even though the Islamic revolution had put an end to a multi-century royal dynasty headed by the shah, the council opted for the kind of hereditary transition that Ali Khamenei had rejected on principle in 2024.

Born on September 8, 1969 in the holy city of Mashhad in eastern Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei is the only one of the late supreme leader's six children to hold a public position.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed aged 86 during the first wave of U.S.-Israeli air strikes on Tehran that triggered the war in the Middle East on Feb. 28.

Mojtaba Khamenei, a cleric who has a salt-and-pepper beard and the black turban of the "seyyed,” descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The United States imposed sanctions on him in 2019 during Trump's first term, saying Khamenei represented his father "despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father.”

According to an investigation by the Bloomberg news organisation, which cited anonymous sources and Western intelligence agency reports, Mojtaba Khamenei has amassed wealth estimated at more than $100 million.