The son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the frontrunner to replace him as supreme leader, according to reports.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is currently favored to take control of Iran by the country’s Assembly of Experts, a powerful body of clerics that makes the decision, the New York Times reported while citing sources close to the deliberations.
Other outlets – including Israeli media and Iranian opposition channels – were reporting early Tuesday that Mojtaba had already been selected, though Iranian state media has not confirmed anything.
Mojtaba Khamenei (center), son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly selected to replace him as supreme leader. picture alliance via Getty Images
The report was widely being picked up by Israeli media but had not been confirmed by Iranian state mouthpieces.
Mojtaba was at first believed to have been among the 40 top Iranian aides killed during the Saturday strike that took out Iran’s highest-ranking cleric.
Mojtaba was at first believed to have been among the 40 top Iranian aides killed during the Saturday strike that took out Tehran’s highest-ranking cleric, his despotic 86-year-old father who ruled over Iran with an iron grip for decades.
But reports of his name being floated within leadership succession discussions indicate he is alive and well – and could be well on the way to furthering his father’s cause of severely anti-western sentiments.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University in this video grab June 19, 2009. REUTERS
Motjaba — the ayatollah’s second-oldest son — has been known for his staunch adherence to his father’s hardline conservatism and has close ties to Iran’s notoriously brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military body, according to CNN.
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He had no official role in his father’s regime but was still sanctioned by the US in 2019.
If it’s true Mojtaba is now leading Iran or about to, that appointment was unexpected.
May 31, 2019 file photo shows, Son of Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, attends a demonstration to mark Jerusalem day in Tehran. NurPhoto via Getty Images
The country’s officials have traditionally looked down on family succession in its leadership – especially since the current regime seized power by toppling a kinship-fueled monarchy in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge,” Johns Hopkins University expert on Iran, Vali Nasr, told the Times.
Other experts said Mojtaba is the “wisest pick” because of how close he is with the highest levels of Iran’s security and military apparatus through the Revolutionary Guard.
A satellite image shows black smoke rising and heavy damage at Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s compound, following strikes by the United States and Israel against Iran, in Tehran, Iran February 28, 2026. via REUTERS
“He is intimately familiar with running and coordinating security and military apparatuses,” Iran political analyst Mehdi Rahmati said.
Iran has currently been in the hands of a three-man council run by two of Ali Khamenei’s top henchmen who survived the strike, with speculation running wild about who would grab power in the vacuum left behind by the elderly cleric’s death.
The Middle Eastern nation has been plunged into chaos since the strikes, with missiles continuing to fall across the country as it lashes back with rockets and drones at US interests across the region.
The chaos has been compounded by the lack of clarity about who is now in charge. Ali Khamenei had not named a clear successor prior to his death, leaving the 88-member Assembly of Experts to make the selection.
If it’s true Mojtaba is now leading Iran or about to, that appointment was unexpected. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Whoever is picked would also need to be cleared by the nation’s Guardian Council, which vets laws and leaders to make sure they are in good standing with strict Islamic codes.
Those expectations made Mojtaba an unlikely choice, as the supreme leader serves as Iran’s religious figurehead as well as the leader of the government.
Mojtaba has no serious religious credentials, which under normal circumstances put him in the crosshairs of a Guardian Council veto, according to the Wall Street Journal.
His close association with his father – whose hardline policies and violent crackdown on Iranian protesters brought about the country’s current predicament – were also viewed as a hindrance to his ascension to power.
Iran has currently been in the hands of a three-man council run by two of Ali Khamenei’s top henchmen who survived the strike. REUTERS
“A portion of the public will react negatively and forcefully to this decision, and it will have a backlash,” analyst Rahmati said.
Still, others characterize Mojtaba as a possibly “extremely progressive” pick who could “move to sideline the hard-liners.”
“See his appointment as a shedding of skin,” said Abdolreza Davari, an Iranian politician who is close to Mojtaba, according to the Times.
President Donald J. Trump oversees Operation Epic Fury at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, FL, March 1, 2026. White House
How much real power Mojtaba would actually have either way remains unclear.
Ali Khamenei ruled Iran for 37 years, during which time he was able to consolidate a sprawling cult and cadre of cronies insulating him from dissent.
Experts have speculated that his successor is unlikely to be able to wield as much power himself and will instead serve as a figurehead.
“We can almost certainly say that leadership will not be concentrated in one person,” Ali Khamenei biographer Mehdi Khalaji told the Journal.
“The next supreme leader will be mostly ceremonial.”