Iran International
Mojtaba Khamenei, long known as the discreet and powerful son of slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was announced early Monday as Iran’s new Supreme Leader at a time when the country is at war and Israel has openly vowed to target any successor to his father.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts in a statement introduced Mojtaba Khamenei as the new leader of the Islamic Republic, five days after Iran International first reported that the body had selected him under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards.
For decades Mojtaba operated largely out of public view while building deep ties across the Islamic Republic’s political and security apparatus. His rise marks the formal emergence of a figure who had already been widely regarded as one of the most influential actors behind the scenes of Iran’s ruling establishment.
Mojtaba, the second son of Ali Khamenei, has long been considered the only member of his family with clear political ambitions. His younger brother, Masoud, worked only in administrative roles within their father’s office, while his other two brothers and two sisters are not known to have held political or bureaucratic positions.
Born in 1969 in Mashhad, Mojtaba continued his education in Tehran at the prestigious Alavi High School, which produced many of the Islamic Republic’s elite, including former foreign minister Javad Zarif. The school’s dean, Kamal Kharrazi, later became one of Ali Khamenei’s senior political advisers.
After graduating, Mojtaba began religious studies in Tehran before moving to Qom to pursue seminary education. In recent years, he has taught dars-e kharij — the highest level of jurisprudential instruction and a prerequisite for attaining the rank of mujtahid — at the Qom Seminary.
Mojtaba married Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of former parliamentary speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel. Zahra and one of their children were killed in the February 28 attack on Ali Khamenei’s residence. The couple had three children.
Because Mojtaba operated almost entirely behind the scenes under strict security, official information about him remained scarce, and unofficial reporting has often been fragmentary.
He held no formal executive or elected position for much of his career, yet he was widely believed to wield significant influence within the Office of the Supreme Leader and to oversee parts of his father’s administrative network.
Political orientation and policy views
A devoted pupil of Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, the ideological architect of the ultraconservative Paydari Party, Mojtaba has long been aligned with Iran’s hardline faction. Analysts describe him as an advocate of a “unified state” in which appointed institutions overshadow elected bodies.
This model was implemented most clearly during the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, when moderate conservatives such as Ali Larijani were marginalized and gradually pushed out of the political arena. Mojtaba has also been widely regarded as a key supporter of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rise in 2005 and his continuation in power after the disputed 2009 election.
Mesbah-Yazdi, a fierce opponent of republicanism who died in 2021, argued that the Supreme Leader should be appointed without regard for public consent. Mojtaba has embraced this worldview, supporting strong clerical authority and the exclusion of moderates from power.
He has also been widely viewed as the principal political and financial patron of the Paydari Front, whose members see him as the guarantor of the Islamic Republic’s revolutionary identity after his father.
His foreign-policy outlook is deeply distrustful of the West, particularly the United States, and rooted in the doctrine of “resistance.” He strongly supports expanding Iran’s regional influence and strengthening the so-called “Axis of Resistance,” opposing compromise with Western governments.
Position on protests
Although Mojtaba has rarely spoken publicly, political reporting has consistently portrayed him as favoring a forceful, security-driven response to domestic unrest.
During the 2009 Green Movement protests, he was widely identified as one of the key figures overseeing the crackdown. Demonstrators chanted directly against him for the first time, shouting: “Mojtaba, may you die before you see leadership.”
During the protests of 2022, media outlets close to the regime again depicted him as central to maintaining internal stability.
His supporters—including segments of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the paramilitary Basij, hardline clerics in Qom, institutions linked to the Supreme Leader’s Office, and state-aligned media—describe him as devout, discreet, and deeply knowledgeable about security affairs.
Opponents, including much of the public and the political opposition, view him as a symbol of hereditary succession and criticize both his role in crackdowns and his opaque political influence.
IRGC networks
Mojtaba has maintained extensive ties to Iran’s intelligence and military structures. His network dates back to his youth, when he served in the IRGC’s Habib Battalion during the Iran–Iraq War—a unit that later produced many senior commanders, including Esmail Kowsari.
He has had a particularly close relationship with Hossein Taeb, former head of the IRGC Intelligence Organization, and has widely been believed to exert influence over its operations. Mohammad Sarafraz, the former head of state television, wrote that Mojtaba and Taeb pressured him to allocate a large share of the broadcaster’s advertising revenue to their networks.
Many Iranian analysts believe Mojtaba has played a decisive role in shaping senior IRGC appointments and key security positions.
Implications of his leadership
With Mojtaba Khamenei now formally assuming the role of Supreme Leader, observers say his leadership could reinforce the dominance of Iran’s hardline institutions and deepen the role of the security establishment within the political system.
His extensive ties to the IRGC and his long-standing influence within the Supreme Leader’s office have given him a unique power base even before holding the title. For years he operated as one of the most consequential figures in Iran’s political hierarchy without occupying a formal public position.
Now, as Supreme Leader, the “shadow prince” of the Islamic Republic has stepped fully into the center of power.
Tehran’s unveiling of a towering statue depicting the Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling before pre-Islamic Persian King Shapur I has renewed criticism of the Islamic Republic’s appeal to nationalist sentiment following the June war with Israel.
For over forty years, the theocracy purged ancient Persian history from schoolbooks, replacing it with post-Islamic narratives. But after the 12-day conflict with Israel, officials have turned to the distant pre-Islamic past to rally a divided society.
From murals of ancient kings and soldiers to patriotic songs added to Shi’ite mourning ceremonies performed before Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Tehran now embraces imagery once deemed heretical by its own revolutionary ethos.
'Kneel before Iran' campaign
Tehran’s Revolution (Enghelab) Square was the scene of an unusual spectacle on Friday as officials unveiled a massive bronze statue depicting Roman Emperor Valerian kneeling in submission before Sassanid King Shapur I, commemorating Iran’s victory at the Battle of Edessa (260 AD).
The event was held under the slogan “Kneel before Iran,” part of what authorities describe as a campaign to project “national unity and historical pride” following the June war with Israel.
Tehran Mayor Alireza Zakani, a staunch ultraconservative, said on X: “Enmity with Great Iran can only end in kneeling before this historic nation.”
Municipal official Davood Goodarzi said the installation would be accompanied by visual displays depicting “other victories of Iranians over foreign aggressors,” including the defeat of British forces by local commander Rais-Ali Delvari, Mirza Kuchak Khan’s resistance against Russian troops, and Surena’s triumph over Rome at the Battle of Carrhae in 53 BCE.
The goal, Goodarzi said, is “strengthening concepts such as national dignity, social unity, and Iranian identity.”
The statue, he said, would remain temporarily at Revolution Square before being moved to a city gateway “where it will stand as the first emblem of Iran before diplomats and foreign visitors.”
Unveiled women were allowed to attend the unveiling ceremony—an uncommon scene at events organized by Tehran’s ultra-hardline municipality.
The turn to the pre-Islamic past
The sharp reversal also recalls remarks once made by Khamenei. In a 2011 speech, he asserted that “all the great military victories of this nation came after Islam,” dismissing pre-Islamic accounts as “things that are not documented.”
In 1987, he had said that prophets triumphed over kings such as Cyrus and that “nothing remains of these monarchs in history but names remembered with derision.”
Nevertheless, pro-government social media accounts have now gone so far as to circulate posters equating Khamenei himself with Shapur, showing him standing with a staff as Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump kneel before him. The caption reads: “You will kneel before Iran.”
'Hypocrisy'
Pro-government figures have hailed the move as a patriotic success. Conservative political reporter Hossein Saremi posted: “Today’s grand Iranian gathering showed that people and the state share one essence: Iran itself. Nothing can take our homeland away.”
Others, however, called the spectacle “hypocrisy.” Journalist Gholamhossein Pashaei wrote on X: “Every year you close Pasargadae to stop people from celebrating Cyrus Day, yet you unveil Shapur’s statue in Enghelab Square with drums and fireworks during Fatimiyya (mourning period)!”
Dissident commentator Hamid Asafi called the ceremony “a perfect snapshot of the Islamic Republic’s contradictions.”
On Telegram he wrote: “A week ago they closed Cyrus’s tomb out of fear of the crowds, and now they glorify Shapur in the same breath. The Islamic Republic fears living history but poses for selfies with its corpse.”
He added: “They know people no longer respond to rosaries and sermons. That’s why they’ve brought history back to the stage—in a controlled costume. If they can’t erase the past, they’ll try to own it.”
The irony deepened as UNESCO formally recognized Cyrus’s Charter as one of the earliest human-rights documents.
President Masoud Pezeshkian wrote on X: “Iran, the cradle of dialogue, justice, and coexistence, can still inspire peace today.”
Users swiftly replied, questioning how such pride could coexist with a government that blocks access to Cyrus’s tomb each year to those wishing to visit it on his birthday.