Israel’s foreign ministry has called Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, a “tyrant” like his slain father, claiming he will continue what it described as the Iranian “regime’s brutality”, AFP reports.

In a post on X featuring a picture of Mojtaba Khamenei and his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, holding guns, the ministry wrote: “Mojtaba Khamenei. Like Father Like Son”.

“Mojtaba Khamenei’s hands are already stained with the bloodshed that defined his father’s rule. Another tyrant to continue the Iranian regime’s brutality,” the ministry said, in Israel’s first reaction to Mojtaba Khamenei’s ascent to supreme leader following the killing of his father on February 28 in Israeli strikes.