IRAN -- When millions of Iranians poured into the streets in 1979 to end the rule of the former shah, their revolution seemed to have put an end to the practice of passing power from father to son. Not so.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been elevated to the position his father held for nearly four decades until his death in US-Israeli air strikes. The 88-member Assembly of Experts did what many Iranians had hoped it would never do: turn the Islamic Republic into a dynasty.

The appointment of the very figure US President Donald Trump had branded “unacceptable” appeared to be a deliberate act of defiance – a signal that Iran’s leadership has no intention of folding to American pressure. Instead, the regime appears to be doubling down on the slain supreme leader’s hardline course, betting it can weather future attacks by consolidating power around the Revolutionary Guards with the younger Khamenei at the helm.

Before the news had fully spread in a country under near-total internet and communications blackout, the image-making had already begun.

Within hours of Mojtaba’s appointment as Iran’s third Supreme Leader, state media released a four-minute documentary recounting his life: modest origins, seminary studies and, crucially, his time on the front lines of the Iran-Iraq war as a 17-year-old, “bravely fighting” alongside the revolution’s defenders.

The clip’s message was clear. Mojtaba is the rightful heir to the “martyred leader,” with the political and religious credentials to rule. It also sought to preempt a central criticism: that he lacks the scholarly depth traditionally expected of a “vali-faqih,” or supreme jurisprudent. For the regime’s core supporters, the film aimed to reassure them that there was no reason to panic, portraying a leader fluent in global affairs and security matters now at the helm.

Then came the cascade of pledges of allegiance down the institutional chain: the president, parliament and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Choreographed and public, they were meant to show that the system, or “nezam,” is standing and working as it should.

Who is he?

Born in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei received religious training like his other brothers though he never rose to the rank of Mujtahid, the level of Islamic jurisprudence many regime loyalists consider essential for the role of supreme leader. He is married to Zahra, the daughter of former speaker of parliament and Khamenei confidant Gholam Haddad Adel.

For years, Mojtaba kept a low profile, although from the shadows he was a central figure in the vast officialdom of his father’s system. He cultivated close ties to the IRGC and the economic networks that prop up the system.

So little footage of him exists in the public domain that state media has resorted to filling the gaps with AI-generated video of the new leader since his appointment.

For Iran observers, his influence behind the scenes was unmistakable, even without holding a senior formal position. In recent years, as he worked in his father’s office, he was increasingly positioned as a potential successor and, in 2021, pictures on social media showed supporters distributing posters on the streets of Tehran that openly promoted him as the next leader.

Many believe he played a pivotal role in pushing for the election of the hardline Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 presidential elections. He was known to have mobilized the IRGC’s networks to boost the candidacy of the then-mayor of Tehran, Ahmadinejad, who was up against the better known, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a Khamenei rival.

By 2009, when millions of Iranians took to the streets to protest the re-election of Ahmadinejad in what they saw as a rigged election, it was clear that Mojtaba was not merely the son of the leader but a political operator in his own right. The uprising was brutally crushed, marking the beginning of the end of any true domestic reformist movement. Events of that year showed his ascendancy, with protesters on the streets chanting “Mojtaba bemiri Rahbari ro Nabini,” or “Mojtaba may you die so you don’t assume the leadership role.”

He was sanctioned by the US in 2019 after the US Treasury accused him of working closely with the commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards to advance what it described as his father’s “destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”

The US-Israel attack that killed his father also took multiple relatives. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were all killed in the attack, according to state media. Days later, the late supreme leader’s wife – Mojtaba’s mother – also died of her wounds, according to state media.

What does his rise mean for Iran and for the war with the US?

Hopes for a more democratic future for Iran may now lie in tatters, as Mojtaba’s elevation sends an unmistakable message about where Iran’s hardline rulers wish to take the regime. It suggests that the Revolutionary Guards and their allied factions have emerged from the first phase of this current war more determined to double down on continuing Ali Khamenei’s legacy and policies.

Mojtaba has no administrative record and has never led a major organization or entity. He has made few public pronouncements on the myriad of social, economic, cultural and political challenges already facing the country, even before the devastation of all-out war. And his worldview is shaped in his father’s shadow.

In selecting him, Iran’s rulers would be signaling the “continuation of the regime,” Maha Yahya, director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center, told CNN before Mojtaba was confirmed. The appointment could also be seen as a message from the regime, she said, that US-Israel military pressure is “not going to get us to shift position.”

His appointment sends a message of continuity at home and defiance abroad, Ali Alfoneh, a senior fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute, told CNN, warning that the new leader may struggle to overcome longstanding legitimacy issues at home.

“Is this going to solve the electricity shortage of the people or the water shortage? Unemployment and all the other problems that the regime is facing? No,” Alfoneh said.

Gary Grappo, former US Ambassador to Oman, said Mojtaba’s experience is derived from running his father’s office.

“He’s powerful because he ran his father’s office. … You could consider it to be akin to the chief of staff with his hands on intelligence, economic policy, security policy and, of course, all the political affairs as well as religious affairs,” he said.

Mojtaba succeeded his father on a night of deep symbolic resonance for Shiite Muslims. The clerics chose the first of Laylat al-Qadr, one of Ramadan’s holiest nights, to announce his appointment. It is also a time that commemorates the assassination of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, whom Shiite Muslims believe was the divinely appointed successor to Prophet Mohammed.

“God’s grace became manifest,” regime supporters chanted in Tehran metro the morning after Mojtaba’s appointment. “Khamenei became young again.”

The-CNN-Wire
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