Tehran: Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as the next Supreme Leader of Iran. Media reports suggest that he was elected by the country's Assembly of Experts.
"The Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba as the next Supreme Leader," Iran International news outlet reported, citing informed sources.
The 56-year-old is the second-eldest son of Ali Khamenei and has long been seen by observers as a potential successor. Mojtaba had strong ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, but never held office. He is considered an influential figure who worked in the shadows during his father's regime, reports said.
"The IRGC (Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps) heavily pressured the assembled group of clerics to select Mojtaba as the regime’s new leader," the outlet reported.
Israel's warningIsrael's Defense Minister, Israel Katz, has declared that whoever is chosen as Iran’s next Supreme Leader will be “a target for elimination,” escalating rhetoric days after Israel killed Ali Khamenei in a strike that triggered a widening regional war. “Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be a target for elimination," Katz warned through a post on X. "It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides. The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to prepare and act by all means to carry out the mission as an integral part of the objectives of Operation Lion's Roar," he added. |
