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 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 (IRGC), 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.

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 on Monday.

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 assassinated aged 86 during the first wave of US-Israeli air strikes on Tehran that triggered the war in the Middle East on February 28.

Security force links

Mojtaba Khamenei, a cleric who has a salt-and-pepper beard and wears the black turban is a veteran of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The United States imposed sanctions on him in 2019 during President Donald 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”.

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”, the US Treasury said at the time.

Opponents have accused the younger Khamenei 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.

On the religious front, Mojtaba Khamenei studied theology in the holy city of holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught.

He had attained the rank of Hujjat al-Islam, but was presented as Ayatollah — a higher rank held by his father and by revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini — upon his appointment as supreme leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, died in the US-Israeli strikes that killed the former supreme leader, according to Iranian authorities.

Israel has issued a stark warning to the new supreme leader and whoever selected him, saying “the hand of the State of Israel will continue to follow any successor and anyone who seeks to appoint a successor”.

The Assembly of Experts has 88 members who are elected every eight years.

It has overseen two leadership transition processes to date — this week, and when Ali Khamenei was selected in 1989 following the death of Khomeini.