Close to conservatives, enriched through shell companies... Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ali Khamenei, who succeeded his father as Iran's supreme leader?

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ali Khamenei, was appointed the new Supreme Leader of Iran on Sunday, March 8.

The 56-year-old cleric thus replaces his father, killed by US-Israeli strikes on his Tehran residence last weekend. In 2024, Mojtaba Khamenei had denied such a dynastic succession scenario, even though the Islamic Revolution ended centuries of hereditary monarchy in 1979. Close ties with the Revolutionary Guards. Born on September 8, 1969, in the holy city of Mashhad (east), Mojtaba Khamenei is one of the former Supreme Leader's six children and the only one to hold a public position, even without an official role. Due to his discretion In official ceremonies and in the media, his true influence has been the subject of intense speculation for years among the Iranian population and in diplomatic circles. The cleric, who sports a salt-and-pepper beard and the black turban of the "sayyids," the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, has been portrayed by some as the true power behind the scenes in the office of the Supreme Leader, the heart of power in Iran. He is considered close to the conservatives, particularly because of his ties to the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological army of the Islamic Republic. This relationship dates back to his service in a combat unit at the end of the long Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Close to power long before his appointment

The US Treasury stated in 2019, when imposing sanctions against him, that Mojtaba Khamenei "officially represented the Supreme Leader, although he was never elected or appointed to a government position, outside of his duties in his father's office."

Ali Khamenei "delegated some of his leadership responsibilities" to his son, "who worked closely with the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as with the Basij resistance force to advance his father's destabilizing regional ambitions and repressive domestic objectives," the US Treasury added on its website.

Opponents have notably Implicated for his role in the violent crackdown that followed the re-election of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, which sparked widespread protests.

Barely appointed and already threatened by Israel and Donald Trump

According to a Bloomberg investigation, Mojtaba Khamenei amassed considerable wealth by building a vast network of shell companies abroad. On the religious front, he studied theology in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught. He attained the rank of Hojatoleslam, a title given to mid-ranking clerics, below that of Ayatollah held by his father and Ruhollah Khomeini. His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, was also killed in the US-Israeli strikes that killed the Supreme Leader and his wife, according to Iranian authorities. Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned on Wednesday that any successor to Ali Khamenei would become "a target." Donald Trump echoed this sentiment, stating on ABC on Sunday that the next Iranian leader "won't last long if he doesn't get (his) approval."