Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for appointing the supreme leader, held a meeting on March 2 at which, according to The New York Times and Iran International, the leading contender was 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed over the weekend. Tehran has issued no official confirmation.
For the Islamic Republic, this would be only the second selection of a supreme leader in 47 years. The first took place in 1989, when Ali Khamenei was chosen. The New York Times, citing three Iranian officials, reported that the leadership is considering publicly naming a successor, although some clerics fear that doing so would make him a target for the United States and Israel.
The newspaper says the sessions were held online because of security risks, and a planned meeting in Qom was abandoned after an Israeli strike hit an empty building where it was supposed to take place. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Washington would not want to see someone “as bad as the previous one” become Iran’s new leader.
Vali Nasr of Johns Hopkins University told The New York Times that choosing Mojtaba would signal the triumph of the most hardline faction tied to the IRGC and show that the security establishment is in control. According to the paper’s sources, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has strongly backed his candidacy, arguing that the country needs a figure experienced in dealing with military and security structures during a crisis.
Mariana Belenkaya told Novaya-Europe that Mojtaba had long appeared in informal discussions as a possible successor, although Ali Khamenei had previously been seen as opposing hereditary transfer of power. Middle East analyst Ruslan Suleymanov said such a choice would indicate continuity rather than a new course. Belenkaya added that Mojtaba is considered more radical than his father, had close ties to the Basij, and took part in suppressing the 2009 protests.
Other possible contenders named by The New York Times are Alireza Arafi and Seyed Hassan Khomeini. The channel Al-Hadath also mentioned former president Hassan Rouhani, Sadeq Amoli Larijani, and Mohammad Reza Hosseini Bushehri. No final decision has reportedly been approved yet.