Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, the second son of former Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been named Iran’s new supreme chief, Iranian state media reported Sunday.
Whereas the brand new supreme chief has by no means held elected workplace, the 57-year-old for years has operated quietly behind the scenes from inside his father’s workplace — cultivating affect throughout the safety institution, notably inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen by Iran’s Meeting of Specialists, comprised of 88 clerics and supervised by the 12-member Guardian Council, which acts as a watchdog for Iran’s structure. Ali Khamenei was killed on Feb. 28 in a strike that additionally took out about 40 different excessive rating Iranian officers.
When his father turned supreme chief in 1989, Mojtaba Khamenei successfully turned one in all his closest aides. Over time, he has been concerned in working components of the state equipment, along with his affect rising notably after the 2009 political unrest often called the Inexperienced Revolution. He’s believed to have performed a job in coordinating parts of the federal government response — a brutal crackdown involving killings and mass arrests.
Mojtaba Khamenei studied theology in Qom and served within the Iran-Iraq battle within the Nineteen Eighties, throughout which he was injured. The battle was the place he developed shut ties with the army providers and with the IRGC.
Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto by way of Getty Pictures
In Iran’s political system, the IRGC wields huge army, financial and political energy — and Mojtaba Khamenei’s authority has largely come from proximity to energy moderately than his non secular stature.
His choice as supreme chief indicators that Iran’s ruling elite has chosen stability over experimentation at a second of utmost stress. His deep ties to the Revolutionary Guard and safety equipment additionally recommend that the establishments driving Iran’s present battle posture will retain sturdy affect within the subsequent part of management. It additionally marks one thing unprecedented within the Islamic Republic: a management transition that successfully retains energy inside the identical household.
Main a secretive life, Mojtaba Khamenei has by no means given a public speech and is never seen out and about. As there may be not a lot public file of him, his political beliefs usually are not totally recognized, however many analysts take into account him a hardliner. He was his father’s assistant, and he has been educating in Qom seminary, Iran’s primary clerical heart, for about eight years.
Mojtaba Khamenei is married and has a minimum of two youngsters, a son and a daughter.
President Trump had beforehand spoken out towards Mojtaba Khamenei, calling him a “light-weight,” and has stated that any supreme chief appointed with out U.S. approval is “not going to final lengthy.”
