Mojtaba Khamenei elected Iran’s new supreme leader after Ayatollah Khamenei’s death

Mojtaba Khamenei, the reclusive second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been elected Iran’s new supreme leader, according to Iran International marking a potentially hardline shift at the top of the regime.

According to The New York Times, the Iran regime’s senior clerics held off an official announcement today, fearing it could expose him as a target for the United States and Israel.

His appointment was reported by Iran International, a London-based Persian language news channel.

The 56-year-old cleric has long been regarded as a central figure within Iran’s power structure and is viewed as at least as hardline as his father.

The senior clerics, known as the Assembly of Experts, held two virtual meetings, one in the morning and one in the evening, according to the officials.

Israel struck a building in Qum, one of Shiite Islam’s main seats of power, where the assembly was scheduled to meet and elect the new Supreme Leader, but the building was empty, according to the Fars News agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Vali Nasr, an expert of Iran and Shi’ite Islam at Johns Hopkins University, said Mojtaba Khamenei would be a surprising choice — and a potentially telling one.

“He was slated to become the successor for a long time,” Mr Nasr said before Mojtaba was reportedly voted in.

“But for the past two years, it seemed to have dropped off from the radar. If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hardline Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge.”

Mojtaba, 56, is an influential if reclusive figure who has operated in the shadows of the empire of his father, who was killed Saturday in the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.

Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Adel; his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, and a son were killed alongside in the strikes on Saturday, the Iranian government said.

He is known for having close ties to the Revolutionary Guard. The Guard, according to the three officials, pushed for his appointment, arguing that he had the qualifications needed to steer Iran in this time of crisis.

“Mojtaba is the wisest pick right now because he is intimately familiar with running and co-ordinating security and military apparatuses,” said Mehdi Rahmati, an analyst in Tehran. “He was in charge of this already.”

Mr Rahmati said that, nevertheless, not everyone will be pleased.

“A portion of the public will react negatively and forcefully to this decision, and it will have a backlash,” he predicted.

Supporters of the Government would see him as a continuation of a ruler whom they view as martyred and would back him swiftly, Mr Rahmati said.

But government opponents, too, will see him as a continuation of the regime, which in recent months has killed at least 7000 protesters, a number that may well grow, rights groups say. Social media videos appear to show an angry reaction in Iran with people shouting “Death to Mojtaba”, Iran International reported.

Other candidates who have emerged as finalists are Ali Reza Arafi, a cleric and jurist who is part of the three-person transition council of leadership named after Ali Khamenei was killed, and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic revolution’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Abdolreza Davari, a politician close to Mojtaba, pictured, said he could emerge as a figure in the style of Saudi Arabian leader Mohammed bin Salman.

“He is extremely progressive and will move to sideline the hardliners,” Mr Davari said in a text message before the war. “See his appointment as a shedding of skin.” US President Donald Trump said that many of the people his government had viewed as potential leaders of Iran had been killed since Saturday.

Asked about a worst-case scenario in Iran, he said: “I guess the worst case would be we do this and somebody takes over who’s as bad as the previous person. Right, that could happen. We don’t want that to happen.”

The Assembly of Experts consists of 88 senior Shi’ite clerics who are picked in public elections and under Iran’s Constitution are responsible for appointing, supervising and discharging the supreme leader.

This is the second supreme leader the assembly will pick in the Islamic republic’s 47-year history. In 1989, the assembly picked Ali Khamenei, handing him the reins of a newly created theocracy.