Sanctioned by the United States, described as an energetic operator who has hard-earned a role within the leadership of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei survived the bombings that killed his father, his wife and other senior figures in the country. The doubts surrounding him in the assembly that will elect the new leader seem to have dissipated: the prospect of offering a clerical version of the hereditary monarchy is no longer so worrying, because the “martyrdom” of his family has boosted his political profile.

First modification: 03/04/2026 - 19:41 Last modification: 03/04/2026 - 19:43

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Mahdi Karroubi, the reformist cleric who twice faced and lost Iranian elections to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, once referred to Mojtaba Khamenei as the “master's son,” accusing him of influencing both outcomes. Then the now-deceased supreme leader Ali Khamenei responded by saying that Mojtaba was “a master” in his own right, “not the master's son.”

The episode describes the profile of Mojtaba Khamenei, the main candidate to succeed the ayatollah who died on February 28, when the bombing of the Israeli-American offensive began.

Mojtaba survived the attacks, as confirmed by Iranian sources to the Reuters news agency, apparently because he was outside Tehran when the attacks against the place where the supreme leader met with the leadership of political and military power occurred.

The dolphin has his own political capital, and even before this contingency he was seen as “a plausible candidate for the shared leadership of Iran following the death of his father,” according to a cable leaked by WikiLeaks in 2008.

For a long time, the only fear of Iran's clerical leadership at the prospect was the concern that the appointment sent the wrong signal: that the theocracy in power was replicating the dynastic model of the monarchy ousted in 1979 by the Islamic Revolution.

But the attacks of February 28 changed the light in which the figure of Mojtaba Khamenei is seen.

His father and his wife Zahra Haddad Adel (also linked to a powerful family of clerics) fell in these offensives, and the concept of “martyrdom” that Islamic fundamentalism confers on these deaths has increased Mojtaba's influence among those called to elect him.

Read alsoIn images: from the Minister of Defense to Khamenei, senior Iranian officials killed in joint attacks

On both sides of power

Mojtaba Khamenei was born in 1969, when his father was still a dissident, and grew up watching Ali fight Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, whom the Islamic Revolution eventually deposed.

Then it was his turn to fight in the war against Iraq, commanding the Habib ibn Mazahir battalion, a division of the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC), many of whose members rose to positions of power in Iranian intelligence, believed to be supported by the Khamenei family.

But the environment of his youth was not only conflict. He was 20 years old when his father was anointed supreme leader, and that allowed the family to have access to millions of dollars and business assets distributed among the leadership by the 'bonyads', foundations that control a fifth of the national economy and all the assets confiscated from the former shah.

According to what the WikiLeaks files revealed, Mojtaba became identified as the “power behind the robes,” “a capable and energetic leader and manager who could one day achieve at least a share of national leadership,” as a 2008 leak described him.

His political wealth does not depend exclusively on the position of his father, whom according to a WikiLeaks revelation he even spied on, tapping his phone. In general terms, he was always perceived as the “main guardian” of the supreme leader, without this preventing him from developing his own power base at the same time.

Since 2019, during Donald Trump's first government, he has been sanctioned by the United States, which accused him of "advancing his father's destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives."

Mojtaba has given reasons for this conclusion: he has close ties with the powerful Revolutionary Guard, both with the commanders of the Quds Forces (which support other militias such as Hezbollah, Hamas or the Houthis of Yemen) and with the Basij, paramilitary squads made up of volunteers.

He has also been accused, as Karroubi denounced in 2009, of interfering in the elections of that year, as well as in those of 2005, to impose a hard-line man like Ahmadinejad, and prevent a reformist from coming to power.

His position among the Basij is believed to have allowed him to successfully lead the force's repression of the 2009 post-election protests. His figure was one of the main targets of the 2022 demonstrations after the death of the young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police.

The other condition for being elected leader of the Iranian theocracy, influence in the religious establishment, may not be his best angle, because Mojtaba is a mid-ranking cleric, a 'Hojjatoleslam', or what is the same, a scholar in Islamic theology, below the position of ayatollah.

However, "it has a strong base of support and support within the Revolutionary Guard, particularly among the younger radical generations," Kasra Aarabi, head of IRGC research at United Against a Nuclear Iran, a political organization based in the United States, explained to the Reuters agency.

Read alsoWho will take the reins after the death of Ali Khamenei?: this is how the succession system works in Iran

When will your turn come?

High-level sources in the Iranian Government have revealed to the Reuters agency that, in the face of the military challenges imposed by the Israeli-American offensive, decision-making has shifted to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, which have taken power into their hands.

Once the Assembly of Experts, the elite of 88 clerics who will elect a new supreme leader, clears up doubt about the succession, the IRGC's position will only strengthen with the arrival of Mojtaba to his father's position.

"If the conflict stops suddenly and the regime survives, we can be sure that the Guards will have an even more important role," anticipates Aarabi.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, told state television on March 4 that the election of a new supreme leader is “close to completion,” but did not reveal the names being considered.

It is believed that another option to take into account will be Hassam Khomeini, grandson of the leader of the revolution Ruhollah Khomeini. Making the second succession in the 47-year history of the Islamic Republic will closely resemble the power struggles of traditional hereditary monarchies.

With Reuters and AP

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