Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was recently killed in US-Israeli strikes, has been named as his successor.
Unlike his father, the 56-year-old has mostly stayed out of the public eye. He has never held an official government position, rarely speaks publicly, and has only a handful of photos or videos of him available.
Despite this low profile, there have long been reports suggesting he wields significant influence behind the scenes in Iran.
US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s referred to him as the power behind the robes and described him as a capable and forceful figure within the Iranian leadership, according to the Associated Press.
His appointment could still generate debate. The Islamic Republic, established in 1979 following the fall of the monarchy, is guided by the principle that the supreme leader should be selected based on religious authority and demonstrated leadership, rather than inherited status.
Throughout his time in power, Ali Khamenei has spoken only in broad terms regarding the succession of leadership in the country.
A member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts the clerical council responsible for choosing the supreme leader mentioned two years ago that Khamenei was against the notion of his son being considered for the role. However, the supreme leader himself has never publicly commented on such speculation.
So who is Mojtaba Khamenei?
Mojtaba Khamenei was born on 8 September 1969 in Mashhad, a city in northeastern Iran. He is the second child among the six children of Ali Khamenei. For his secondary education, he attended the religiously-oriented Alavi School in Tehran.
At the age of 17, Mojtaba briefly served in the military during the Iran-Iraq War, which lasted eight years. This brutal conflict deepened Iran’s distrust of the United States and Western countries, which had backed Iraq during the war.
In 1999, he moved to the city of Qom, a major center of Shia Islamic studies, to pursue religious education. Interestingly, he had not previously worn clerical attire, and it is unclear why he chose to enter the seminary at the age of 30, as most students begin such studies much earlier.
Mojtaba currently holds the rank of a mid-level cleric, a factor that could complicate any prospects of him being recognized as Iran’s next supreme leader.
