Hours after slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was chosen to succeed his father, Iranian state media lit up with rarely seen footage of the new supreme leader during the 1980s Iran-Iraq war.
In one scene, a teenage Mojtaba walks among fellow volunteer fighters of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, dressed in khaki military uniform with his head wrapped in a red band bearing a Shia slogan. In another, he sits among combatants, quietly clearing the barrel of his rifle.
At a time when the Islamic republic is once again fighting for its survival, the footage sent a clear message about the martial environment and life-long ties to the elite Revolutionary Guards, Iran’s most powerful institution, that have shaped the rise of the country’s new ultimate decision maker.
Iranians have for years speculated that Mojtaba was being prepared for the country’s highest office, with the backing of institutions including the guards. But his elevation — days after much of his family was killed in a US-Israeli bombing raid — signalled that, far from a break with the past, the regime sees doubling down on his father’s hardline project and hostility to the west as essential to its survival.
Mojtaba “got close to the guards, and he’s certainly their choice”, said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert at the Crisis Group think-tank. “Can you imagine Mojtaba, whose father, mother, wife, sister, daughter and niece have been killed by the US and Israel, would subjugate his country to [Donald] Trump’s whims?”
His selection “is a big middle finger to Trump . . . a sneering act of defiance meant to show that pressure, threats and isolation have changed nothing”, Vaez added.
Mojtaba’s first challenge will be to survive the war with Israel threatening to assassinate whoever Khamenei’s replacement is. Trump described Mojtaba as a “lightweight” and “unacceptable” figure, warning that whoever took over would not last long.
The 56-year-old has not been seen in public since the start of the war. State television indicated that he has become disabled, without clarifying when this occurred or whether it was linked to the current conflict.
A relative of the new supreme leader, speaking to the FT, said Mojtaba’s priority will be continuing the Islamic republic’s security policies, which have included pursuing a ballistic missile programme and cultivating regional anti-Israel militant groups.
“Iran under his leadership will be the same Iran under his father, which means strong opposition to US bullying and Israeli aggressions,” the relative said. Iran “will become stronger to defend the country against future aggressions”.
The relative added that Mojtaba had maintained informal ties to the guards over the past two decades, sometimes even serving as an informal go-between with the elite force and his father.
Little else is known about Mojtaba’s past. The second son among six children, he was born before the 1979 Islamic revolution in the northeastern city of Mashhad, and began studying religious doctrine under his father.
He later pursued further training with senior clerics in the holy city of Qom, following in the footsteps of the elder Khamenei, who became supreme leader in 1989. For two decades, starting in 2004, Mojtaba taught advanced religious studies there.
The first public image of Mojtaba emerged during the unrest that followed the 2009 presidential election. Reformist politicians accused the reclusive son of playing a central behind-the-scenes role, alongside the guards, to push for re-election of hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, an accusation denied by hardliners.
And his voice has been heard publicly only once, in a brief video released in 2024 in which he announced the suspension of his religious studies in Qom.
Domestic media said on Monday that he was fluent in Arabic and English. Mojtaba’s relative said he had played a leading role in shaping the Islamic republic’s technology policies.
Under the constitution, the selection of a supreme leader is the responsibility of the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body tasked with appointing a figure who is a qualified Islamic jurist whom they deem to possess the piety, political and social insight to lead.
Those inside the political establishment say Mojtaba emerged as the strongest candidate to succeed his father in part after several potential rivals were sidelined or died.
Former president Ebrahim Raisi, once viewed as a leading contender, was killed in a helicopter crash about two years ago. Other mooted contenders like former centrist president Hassan Rouhani and Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic republic’s founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, were not allowed to join the Assembly of Experts.
Mojtaba’s candidacy had previously faced resistance from those who feared it being seen as a return to the hereditary systems of government that preceded the Islamic republic. While experts thought this could work against him, the war made him a logical choice as the regime battled for survival and sought to send a message of defiance to the US president, analysts say.
“It signals not renewal, but the grim continuity of a system that now openly sheds even the pretence of republicanism,” Vaez said. “It’s a choice that, if you look at it from the perspective of a regime under siege, it makes sense. But it’s not a choice that will help in the long run.”
The new leader inherits not just a war but a broken economy and a population increasingly at odds with its theocratic rulers. He came to power only weeks after Iran was swept by mass anti-regime protests and the deadliest domestic unrest since the revolution, with thousands of people killed in a brutal crackdown on demonstrations.
The elder Khamenei had for years resisted calls for reforms to the Islamic republic, and Iranian society remains sharply divided between a committed minority of regime supporters and a majority that opposes it with increasing venom.
Mojtaba’s relative suggested that the new supreme leader could consider reforms once the war had ended, but tempered expectations of radical change.
“He was the closest of all children and the most similar to his father in many respects,” the relative said. “He will do anything necessary to strengthen the resilience, survival and dynamism of the political system, but he will not pursue an existential transformation.”
Others have said it is too soon to rule out that he could prove more ambitious, suggesting — despite little evidence — that he could seek to emulate the example of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who embarked on social and economic reforms while doubling down on the autocratic nature of the state.
“We still need to wait and hear his first public speech and how he is going to proceed before deciding in which direction he is going to move,” said Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, a reformist politician.
“What is certain is that Iran’s new leader has a deep understanding of resistance against the US and Israel, and he is fully aware of the behind-the-scenes workings of the country’s institutions, from the Revolutionary Guards to the government and the judiciary.”
Mojtaba can for now expect the support of these disparate institutions, Ellie Geranmayeh at the European Council on Foreign Relations said. But, if he and the regime survive the war, and he finds himself presiding over a system in decay and an increasingly angry populace, the fact that the son has replaced the father may only add fuel to the frustration.
“Mojtaba for now — and, more importantly, the team around him running the wartime operations — will not be challenged,” Geranmayeh said. “But if he makes it out alive from this war, that’s when the internal pushback will start.”
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