Iran’s New Leader Appointed Against Father’s Wishes
Shiite Muslims wave Iranian flags and display portraits of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, during the annual Quds Day, or Jerusalem Day, rally in support of Palestinians, in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iran’s newly appointed supreme leader reportedly took on a role his father had preferred he avoid. According to CBS News, US intelligence shared with President Trump suggests that the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei questioned his son Mojtaba Khamenei’s fitness for leadership. Sources say Ali Khamenei considered Mojtaba unqualified, mentally limited, and struggling with personal challenges. A research director for the National Union for Democracy told the New York Post that the elder Khamenei “explicitly asked Mojtaba not to be named as successor” in his will. Despite these reservations, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps pressured Iran’s clerical council to select the 56-year-old Mojtaba as supreme leader following Ali Khamenei’s death in an Israeli strike.
President Trump has privately expressed skepticism about the significance of the intelligence on Mojtaba, telling advisers that Iran may effectively lack a leader and suggesting that Mojtaba—who was reportedly injured in the strike that killed his father—could be dead, according to CBS. Publicly, Trump has described Mojtaba as a “lightweight,” telling Fox News on Friday that he is “not somebody that the father even wanted.” The United States is offering up to $10 million for information about Mojtaba’s location, as well as that of nine other senior Iranian officials. However, the White House now sees the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as the dominant force in Tehran. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said Mojtaba is “likely disfigured.”
About Post Author
