DUBAI: Iran’s Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, state media reported on Sunday.

Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful Rev­o­lutionary Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran’s ruling establishment as a potential succe­ssor to his father, who was assassinated after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.

Although Iran’s ruling ideology frowns on the principle of hereditary succession, he has a powerful following within the Guards and his dead father’s still-influential office.

A member of the council, Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, said in a video on Sunday that a candidate had been selected based on Khamenei’s guidance that Iran’s top leader should be “hated by the enemy”.

“Even the Great Satan (US) has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after US President Donald Trump said Mojtaba was an “unacceptable” choice for him.

Mojtaba amassed power under his father as a senior figure close to the security forces and the vast business empire they control. He has opposed reformers seeking to engage with the West as it tries to curb Iran’s nuclear programme.

His close ties with the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) give him added leverage across Iran’s political and security apparatus and he has built up influence behind the scenes as his father’s “gatekeeper”, sources familiar with the matter said.

Mojtaba was born in 1969 in Mashhad and grew up as his father was helping lead the opposition to the Shah. As a young man, he served in the Iran-Iraq war.

Mojtaba studied in the seminaries of Qom, Iran’s centre of theological learning, and has the clerical rank of Hojjatoleslam.

He has never held a formal position in the Islamic Republic’s government. He has appeared at loyalist rallies, but has rarely spoken in public.

Published in Dawn, March 9th, 2026