What we find out about Iran’s new supreme chief, Mojtaba Khamenei

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Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, as supreme chief, signalling that hardliners stay firmly in cost in Tehran greater than per week into its battle with the US and Israel.

Mojtaba's father, Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of many first strikes launched towards Iran greater than per week in the past. His ascension is not going to doubtless go down nicely with U.S. President Donald Trump, who has beforehand known as him "unacceptable" for the function.

Here is what we find out about Mojtaba Khamenei.

No formal authorities function Khamenei was born in 1969 within the metropolis of Mashhad, Iran, and grew up as his father was serving to lead the opposition to the Shah. As a younger man, he served in the Iran-Iraq battle.

Khamenei studied underneath non secular conservatives within the seminaries of Qom, Iran's middle of Shia theological studying, and has the clerical rank of hojjatoleslam.

He has by no means held a proper place within the Islamic republic's authorities, regardless of being extensively seen because the gatekeeper to his father. He has appeared at loyalist rallies, however has not often spoken in public.

His function has lengthy been a supply of controversy in Iran, with critics rejecting any trace of dynastic politics in a rustic that overthrew a U.S.-backed monarch in 1979.

Critics say Khamenei lacks the clerical credentials to be supreme chief — hojjatoleslam is a notch under the rank of ayatollah, the place held by his father and Ruhollah Khomeini, who based the Islamic republic.

Ties to IRGC, supreme chief's workplace His shut ties to senior clerics and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which dominates Iran's safety forces and its financial system, give him leverage throughout the state's political and coercive safety establishments.

Kasra Aarabi, head of researching the IRGC at United Towards Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based coverage group, stated Khamenei has a "sturdy constituency and help" inside the IRGC and youthful radical supporters of the regime.

Aarabi stated Khamenei has amassed a lot affect appearing as a gatekeeper to his father, describing him as a "mini supreme chief."

Hardliner Khamenei has opposed reformers looking for to interact with the West, which has lengthy sought to curb Iran's nuclear program.

Alan Eyre, former U.S. diplomat and Iran specialist, stated Khamenei is "extra hardline than his father," whereas Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow on the Center East Institute, stated he'll comply with the "similar playbook as his father."

"It is a massive humiliation for the US to hold out an operation of this scale, danger a lot, and find yourself killing an 86-year-old man, solely to have him changed by his hardline son," Vatanka stated.

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Khamenei's spouse, who was killed in Saturday's airstrikes, was the daughter of a outstanding hardliner, the previous parliament Speaker Gholamali Haddad Adel.

"He will have a variety of revenge to actual," Eyre stated.

Sanctioned by Washington The U.S. Treasury Division imposed sanctions on Khamenei in 2019, saying he represented the supreme chief in "an official capability regardless of by no means being elected or appointed to a authorities place" other than working in his father's workplace.

Its web site stated Ali Khamenei had delegated a few of his tasks to Mojtaba, whom it stated had labored carefully with the commander of the IRGC's Quds Power and the Basij, a non secular militia affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, "to advance his father's destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive home aims."

Disliked by protesters Khamenei was a specific goal for criticism by protesters throughout unrest over the dying of Mahsa Amini in police custody in 2022, after the younger girl was arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic's strict gown codes.