For decades, Mojtaba Khamenei operated in the shadows, building influence inside Iran’s clerical and security circles without ever holding an official post. Chosen as Iran’s supreme leader, the 56-year-old cleric now steps into the most powerful role in the country after his father was killed in US-Israeli air strikes.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the country’s supreme leader, elected Mojtaba Khamenei on Sunday during a secret meeting in the holy city of Qom, local media reported.
His name had recently been raised by US President Donald Trump in an interview with the American news site Axios. Trump warned that if Mojtaba Khamenei became supreme leader, “he would be killed like his father”.
Mojtaba Khamenei's wife – the daughter of hardline politician and former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel – was among those killed on 28 February, the first day of the US-Israeli offensive.
For years he had been seen as a possible successor to his father, Ali Khamenei. His prospects appeared to grow after the death of another potential contender, former president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash in 2024.
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Years building influence
The younger Khamenei spent decades cultivating close ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and strengthening his influence within Iran’s clerical establishment.
He has consistently opposed supporters of dialogue with Western countries during efforts to limit Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
“He has strong constituency and support within the IRGC, in particular amongst the younger radical generations,” Kasra Aarabi, of the US-based organisation United Against Nuclear Iran, which monitors the activities of the Revolutionary Guard, told Reuters.
Khamenei's rise has also drawn criticism from within Iran’s political system. Some opponents argue that he does not have the religious qualifications required to become supreme leader.
Others say his appointment goes against the intentions of the founders of the Iran, who sought to break with the dynastic traditions of the former monarchy of the shahs.
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Shaped by revolution
Born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad, Mojtaba Khamenei grew up as his father joined Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s movement against the shah.
He later fought in the Iran-Iraq war from 1980 to 1988 and studied theology in the seminaries of Qom, the centre of Shia religious learning.
He holds the clerical title of hodjatoleslam, a rank below ayatollah in the Shia hierarchy, and wears the black turban of a sayyed – indicating direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad.
Mojtaba Khamenei has never held an official position within the government. While he has occasionally appeared at rallies supporting the regime, he has rarely spoken publicly.
Since 2019 Khamenei has been under sanctions imposed by the US Treasury Department, which said he represented the supreme leader “in an official capacity even though he was never elected or appointed to a government position”, apart from working in his father’s office.
The US also said he had been given certain powers by his father and maintained close ties with the commander of the Quds Force – the Revolutionary Guards unit responsible for operations abroad – and with the volunteer Basij militia.
It said those links were used “to advance his father’s regional destabilisation goals and domestic oppression”.
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Power and wealth
The new supreme leader heads a financial empire stretching “from shipping in the Persian Gulf to Swiss bank accounts, British luxury real estate and a major Western intelligence service”, an investigation by the US media outlet Bloomberg reported earlier this year.
He is also often seen as having played a role in the rise of ultra-conservative former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in 2005. Khamenei supported Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election four years later, which triggered a wave of protests.
In 2022 he became a frequent target of demonstrators during the “Woman, Life, Freedom” protest movement that erupted after the death in custody of student Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested by Iran’s morality police for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code.
His wife, the daughter of hardline politician and former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel, was killed on 28 February in US-Israeli air strikes, along with several members of her family.
