Ayatollah Khamenei's son Mojtaba named Iran's new Supreme Leader: Report

Mojtaba Khamenei (Courtesy: Reuters file photo)

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been reportedly named the new Supreme Leader of Iran following his father's killing in the joint Israel-US airstrike. He has been elected by the country's powerful Assembly of Experts, Iran International reported.

"The Assembly of Experts elected Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba as the next Supreme Leader," Iran International reported, citing informed sources.

The second-eldest son of Khamenei, Mojtaba has long been as a likely successor by observers. Mojtaba's wife was confirmed killed in a strike on February 28.

This is also only the second instance in the Islamic republic's 47-year history that the Assembly of Experts has chosen a Supreme Leader. Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran from 1989, was the Middle East's longest-serving head of state.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, widely known as the Revolutionary Guards, is reported to have strongly backed Mojtaba's elevation.

Khamenei's Killing

Ali Khamenei was killed in a precision strike carried out by the United States and Israel on February 28, followed by which tensions have sharply escalated across the Gulf. Iran has since launched a series of missile and drone attacks in retaliation against US military facilities and allied bases throughout the region, and its forces have struck targets in countries including Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

As per an unnamed Israeli military official who spoke to The Associated Press, within 60 seconds three separate targets were struck - all key locations where Iran’s top leadership was gathered -, leading to the killing Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior figures, including the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and other high-ranking officials.

This was not an abrupt strike; it followed years of meticulous intelligence gathering and sustained digital surveillance. American and Israeli intelligence agencies are reported to have spent months closely watching Ali Khamenei and the inner circle of his security detail before the strike that killed him.

The surveillance went beyond traditional human intelligence — with Israeli agencies, in particular, allegedly hacking into much of Tehran's traffic camera network and accessing mobile communication systems to monitor movements.