Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, just over a week after the killing of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in U.S.-Israeli strikes that plunged the region into a wider war.
The 56-year-old cleric was chosen as his father’s successor on Sunday by the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for appointing Iran’s supreme leader.
Senior officials, Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the armed forces quickly pledged their support for the new leader.
Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who has been tasked with guiding Iran’s security strategy since the United States and Israel launched their offensive, called for unity around the new supreme leader.
Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf also welcomed the appointment, saying loyalty to the new supreme leader was a “religious and national duty.”
Mojtaba Khamenei has never held elected office or faced a public vote, but for decades he has been considered an influential figure within the inner circle of the supreme leader and has cultivated close ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In recent years, he had increasingly been mentioned as a possible successor to his father. His selection could signal that hard-line factions within Iran’s political establishment remain firmly in control and may indicate limited willingness to pursue negotiations as the war enters its second week.
In a statement Sunday, the 88-member Assembly of Experts said it “did not hesitate for a minute” in choosing a new leader despite what it described as “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime.”
Earlier, the clerical body said it had reached a majority consensus on the successor without naming him. One member said “the path of Imam Khomeini and the path of the martyr Imam Khamenei has been chosen” and that “the name of Khamenei will continue.”
