As of Feb. 28, 2026, Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a joint military strike conducted by the United States and Israel on his compound in Tehran. Following the 40 days of mourning, his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, was chosen as his successor.
The new 56 year-old leader served as a cleric and Khamenei’s closest advisor throughout his rule. Throughout his childhood and young adult years, his father served as a big influence in Mojtaba’s life. When he was just 10 years old, his father, a prominent figure in the revolution, helped Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first ayatollah and Shiite religious leader, overthrow the ruling shah and establish the Islamic Republic in 1979. Over time, Mojtaba grew to become even more connected to the Islamic Republic’s political and security establishments than his predecessor.
Later, Mojtaba joined the IRGC, Iran’s elite military institution, serving in the final years of the Iran-Iraq war. Through this, he strengthened connections to Iran’s security elite.
After the war, he studied clericism in Qom, again shaping his ties within Iran’s clerical community, as well as within conservative political networks.
Despite his seemingly quiet life in his father’s office, Mojtaba gradually cultivated influence. In fact, he has been named as one of the leaders in charge of the 2009 Green Movement crackdown, when security forces forcefully suppressed those who opposed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s winning of the election.
His involvement with the IRGC, as well as his establishment and firm defense in favor of the Islamic Republic, earned him a reputation as being even more unyielding than his father.
Yet Mojtaba’s reach has come at a profound personal cost: according to the Iranian government, the Feb. 28 airstrikes in Tehran claimed not only his father, but also his mother, wife and son.
Military escalation, according to Jasmine El-Gamal, former Middle East Advisor at the U.S. Department of Defense, is inevitable. “You can imagine that this is not someone who’s going to be in any kind of conciliatory mood,” she told CNBC.
More tensions arise from the side of the United States when President Donald Trump recently told ABC News that “if Mojtaba doesn’t get approval from the U.S government, he’s not going to last long,” and called Mojtaba a “lightweight” in terms of leadership style.
Overall, the change in leadership has no signs of easing the tension between the United States, Israel and Iran, but also shows defiance: the election results signal to Trump that the bombings and other threats are not enough to cause the regime change he is wishing for.
