The semi – official Fars news agency of Iran announced that the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will become Iran’s next supreme leader, taking over after his father was killed in an attack by the US and Israel.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the third person to lead the Islamic Republic and is the first instance of hereditary succession since the Pahlavi monarchy was overthrown in the 1979 revolution.
According to Fars, Iran’s Assembly of Experts elected the country’s next supreme leader in a “decisive vote.” The vote occurred hours before the result was made public.
On Sunday, during the ninth day of the war in the Middle East, Iran continued its attacks on its neighbors, hitting a water plant in Bahrain.
The younger Khamenei was born in 1969 in the holy city of Mashhad in Iran’s northeast as the family’s second – oldest son. As per Encyclopedia Britannica, he fought briefly in the 1980 – 1988 Iran – Iraq war which solidified his father’s rise to power and then became a cleric, studying at Iran’s main religious seminary in the city of Qom.
He maintains a relatively low public profile, but is regarded as being close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This military force leads Iran’s missile program and regional alliances with militias, and it has expanded to control up to 40% of Iran’s economy.
During the alleged interference in the country’s 2009 elections that triggered widespread street protests, the opposition accused Mojtaba of being involved.
Bloomberg reported in January that he oversees a large – scale investment empire that extends from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt. He did not respond to requests for comment at that time.