Iran state TV says Mojtaba Khamenei, son of late supreme leader, named successor
The 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics, selects Iran’s supreme leader.
Iranian state TV on Sunday said Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor.
He had long been considered a contender, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.
Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answers to the supreme leader, and now the younger Khamenei will have the central say in war strategy.
The announcement came on the ninth day of the war and after signs of a rift among Iranian officials as the country awaited a decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects Iran’s supreme leader.
There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of supreme leader since the Islamic Revolution almost a 50 years ago.
A secretive figure, the younger Khamenei has not been seen publicly for days.
He now stands at the heart of Iran’s theocracy and will have final say over all matters of state.
He will serve as commander-in-chief of the military and Revolutionary Guard, and gains a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, if he chooses to decree it.
He also faces the likelihood of US criticism.
“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,” US president Donald Trump has said.
“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”
Mr Trump told ABC News earlier on Sunday he wants a say in who comes to power once the war is over; a new leader “is not going to last long” without his approval, he added.
The US and Israel killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the war’s opening airstrikes.
The Revolutionary Guard issued a statement expressing support, and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah shared a portrait of the younger Khamenei on Telegram with the caption “Leader of the blessed Islamic revolution”.
