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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 in the early hours of Monday. Mojtaba, a 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 killed 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. The country's theocratic system dates to the 1979 revolution that ousted the last Shah of Iran. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of the revolution, introduced a new system of rule: vilayat-e faqih, or guardianship of the Islamic jurist. The theory holds that until the return of the Shi'ite Muslim 12th Imam, who disappeared in the ninth century, power on earth ​should be wielded by a venerable cleric. It means whoever takes over as supreme leader, empowered by the constitution as the ultimate authority guiding the elected president and parliament, will have to be a senior cleric. The country has had three supreme leaders and here's their time in power. DawnToday

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