It’s published •update
Israel’s military campaign against Iran has raised questions about the future leadership of the Islamic Republic and who will take over Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei if he is killed.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Khamenei could be the next one after assassinating several top Iranian military officials and nuclear scientists.
Khamenei refused a call to surrender in the face of Israeli strikes, warning that military involvement by Washington would cause “irreparable damage.”
President Donald Trump said earlier this week that the US knew where Khamenei was “hiding” but “we’re not going to take him away… at least not now.”
Reports have revealed that Khamenei’s son Mojutaba is growing in influence as tensions continue to rise almost a week after Israel launched a surprising attack on its main rival, Iran.
Mojtaba is a middle-class clergy considered an influential figure within Iran’s decision-making circles, and despite his lack of public appearance, insiders previously told Reuters. These sources said he has established solid relations with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and other important religious and political players in Tehran.
Khamenei has never approved a successor, but Iranian analysts say Mojutaba has long been considered one of the leading candidates to be the country’s next highest leader. The other was the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash last May.
Despite talks about his widespread impact, the meeting of Iranian experts (the task of appointing the country’s next top leadership removed Mojutaba from the list of potential candidates about six months ago, according to a Reuters report.
However, although his popularity is said to have declined, sources say there was a behind-the-scenes lobbying effort by an influential clergy to bring his name back into the mix.
US and Israeli officials have previously raised concerns that a lack of consensus about who should be the country’s next highest leader could complicate the succession stage and lead to disruption within the administration, the Wall Street Journal reported last year.
Iranian watchers also say Khamenei opposes the genetic control of the country in which the US-backed monarchy was overthrown in 1979.
Nevertheless, the overlap of Iranian religious and military institutions, as well as the lack of transparency behind the process of appointing the next supreme leader, means that modutaba cannot be ruled out.
