TEHRAN: Iran’s Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of slain Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the new supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, marking a major leadership transition as the country enters the second week of war with the United States and Israel.
Mojtaba Khamenei has long remained a largely reclusive figure, operating behind the scenes within the network of influence built by his father, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Iran on Saturday.
The conflict, which began on February 28 with surprise strikes by Israel followed by the United States, has now entered its second week, marked by intensive airstrikes, retaliatory missile launches, and growing instability across the Middle East.
Mojtaba Khamenei, a cleric in his mid-50s, has never held a formal government office but for years exercised significant influence within his father’s office and is widely believed to maintain close ties with Iran’s security and military establishment.
In a lengthy statement, the assembly said that “after careful and extensive studies… in today’s extraordinary session, Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei (may Allah protect him) is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts.”
He is widely believed to maintain close ties with senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a powerful force at the core of Iran’s security and political establishment.
Iran's Assembly of Experts has appointed Ayatollah Sayyed Mojtaba Khamenei as the new Leader of the Islamic Republic
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— Press TV 🔻 (@PressTV) March 8, 2026
Nine days after US-Israeli strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Middle East into war, the Iranian government’s Assembly of Experts convened to choose their next leader.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, “is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts,” the body said in a statement.
It said that the body “did not hesitate for a minute” in choosing a new leader, despite “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime.”
Ayatollah Seyed Mojtaba Khamenei Elected as Iran's Supreme Leader pic.twitter.com/G2A8EyLI4o
— Fars News Agency (@EnglishFars) March 8, 2026
US President Donald Trump has previously dismissed the younger Khamenei as a “lightweight,” and insisted again on Sunday that he should have a say in the new leader’s appointment.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News before the announcement was made.
The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani thanked the Assembly of Experts for selecting Ali Khamenei’s successor despite “Trump’s threat to bomb it”, according to multiple Iranian news agencies.
This is the moment Iran’s state TV announced that Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had been selected as the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic by the clerical body known as the Assembly of Experts. pic.twitter.com/tEm9w8WYQo
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) March 8, 2026
Ali Larijani said Tehran’s “enemies” thought the country would “reach a deadlock” following the death of Ali Khamenei but the Assembly ultimately proceeded with the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei.
Iran’s state broadcaster Irib and the semi-official Tasnim news agency have both shared a statement credited to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps welcoming the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei.
The statement describes Khamenei as an “all-encompassing jurist, a young thinker and the most knowledgeable on political and social issues”.
The IRGC also says it declares its “respect, devotion and obedience” to Khamenei, saying that its members are “ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands of the Guardian Jurist”.
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei
Mojtaba Khamenei is the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He has a powerful following within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran’s Assembly of Experts – the 88-member clerical body that selects the country’s supreme leader – has called upon Iranians to maintain unity and pledge support to Mojtaba Khamenei.
In a statement circulated on state media on Sunday, the assembly said that Khamenei was chosen based on a “decisive vote”.
It urged all Iranians, “especially the elites and intellectuals of the seminaries and universities”, to “pledge allegiance to the leadership and maintain unity”.
Khamenei has never run for office or been subjected to a public vote, but has for decades been a highly influential figure in the inner circle of the previous supreme leader, cultivating deep ties to the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
The younger Khamenei’s ascension is a clear sign that the government has little desire to agree to a deal or negotiations in the short term.
Mojtaba Khamenei has never discussed the issue of succession publicly.
Instead, Khamenei has largely kept a low profile, not giving public lectures, Friday sermons, or political addresses – to the point that many Iranians have not heard his voice, despite knowing for years that he was a star rising within the theocratic establishment.
