Iran has rejected Israeli media reports that claimed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei had been named the country’s new supreme leader. Mojtaba Khamanei is the son of the former supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In a post on X via the Consulate General in Mumbai X, the country said there was “no official source” for the claim and dismissed the reports.
It states: “Reports circulating in the media about potential leadership candidates selected by the Iranian Assembly of Experts have no official source and are officially denied.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a council of 88 clerics, is responsible for choosing Iran’s next supreme leader, but it remains unclear how it will do so during the conflict with the United States and Israel.
As the conflict continues, Iran has also postponed Ayatollah Khamenei’s funeral ceremony, which was due to begin today. Khamenei will be buried in Mashhad. He was killed when the US and Israel jointly fired rockets at his home office on Friday, February 28.
Ahmad Khatami, a member of the assembly, said on Wednesday that he was “close” to a final decision when the list of options was decided, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
What did Israeli media reports say?
Sources cited by Iran International and The New York Times earlier in the day claimed that Mojtaba had been chosen to succeed the Supreme Leader. Hours later, Iran denied any such reports.
When news broke that Mojtaba had been chosen to succeed Khamenei, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that any leader appointed to replace Ayatollah Khamenei would be “targeted for removal,” the Times of Israel reported.
“Any leader appointed by Iran’s terrorist regime to continue leading a plan to destroy Israel, threaten the US and the free world and countries in the region, and oppress the Iranian people will be a clear target for removal. It doesn’t matter what their name is or where they are hiding,” Katz said in a statement.
“We will continue to act with full force, together with our American partners, to dismantle the regime’s capabilities and create the conditions for the Iranian people to overthrow and replace it,” Katz added.
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei?
Ayatollah Khamenei’s second-eldest son, Mojtab, is a mid-ranking cleric and is widely speculated to be his father’s successor. He has close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.
Mojtaba served in the armed forces during the Iran-Iraq War and is said to have influence behind the scenes as his father’s gatekeeper.
