Iranian TV Network Announces Appointment of New Supreme Leader

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has allegedly been named Iran’s new Supreme Leader.

The 56-year-old Mojtaba, who is Ayatollah Khamenei’s second eldest son, maintains close ties with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. According to Iran International, an opposition media outlet, his selection by Iran’s Assembly of Experts came under significant pressure from the Revolutionary Guards.

Despite being sanctioned by the United States in 2019, Mojtaba lacks a high-ranking clerical status and has never officially held a governmental position. However, his participation in the Iran-Iraq war and his considerable behind-the-scenes influence have long made him a potential candidate to succeed his father.

Interestingly, Mojtaba was not among the three senior clerics reportedly named by Ali Khamenei as potential successors last year.

However, he was not included in a list of three senior clerics Ali Khamenei reportedly identified last year. 

And Father-to son succession is viewed negatively in the Shiite Muslim clerical establishment in Iran.

But much of Iran’s top brass has been decimated in the latest conflict and Mojtaba has close ties with the powerful Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and the Basrji volunteer paramilitary force.

Mojtaba, unlike Ali Khamenei’s wife, daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law, survived the US-Israeli attacks.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly been appointed Iran’s new Supreme Leader

Mojtaba, 56, Ali Khamenei’s second oldest son, has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Mojtaba (pictured with his father), is not a high-ranking cleric and has no official role in the regime

The regime’s assembly is tasked with appointing, supervising and potentially dismissing the supreme leader. 

It met on Tuesday in Qom to find a successor to Ali Khamenei, who was killed on Saturday by joint US-Israeli strikes.

Israeli and US strikes flattened the building where the assembly met. There was no information on any potential casualties.

Separate air strikes also hit Ferdowsi Square in central Tehran this afternoon with images showing injured people staggering through rubble.

In recent years, a favorite to succeed the 86-year-old Supreme Leader had been the hardline President Ebrahim Raisi, but he was killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024. 

The latest bombing campaign comes after Donald Trump told Iran’s surviving leaders it’s ‘too late’ to talk. 

Trump warned the ‘hardest hits’ are yet to come as the fighting entered its fourth day and promised to retaliate after the US embassy in Saudi Arabia was attacked by drones.

The President also claimed the initial wave of strikes wiped out Washington’s preferred successors to Khamenei.

He said the White House had shortlisted several preferred successors – but insisted the military campaign was ‘so successful’ it eliminated not only the primary options but also the ‘second or third’ choices.

‘The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates,’ Mr Trump told ABC News.

Among the dead are one of the regime’s top advisers Ali Shamkhani, commander of the Revolutionary Guard General Mohammad Pakpour and hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In a separate interview with the New York Times, Mr Trump said he had ‘three very good choices’ for the next potential leader for Iran, but did not reveal who these were.

On Monday night Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi told state TV that the killing of the supreme leader was a ‘religious crime’ that will have serious consequences.

 This is a breaking news story. More to follow.