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Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has emerged as the leading candidate to succeed him, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations, the New York Times reported.
The senior clerics responsible for selecting Iran’s next supreme leader met Tuesday to discuss the succession and were considering announcing Mojtaba Khamenei as the new leader as early as Wednesday morning, the officials said.
Some clerics expressed reservations, fearing that naming him could make him a target for the U.S. and Israel. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions.
The Assembly of Experts held two virtual meetings Tuesday. Israel struck a building in Qum where the assembly had been scheduled to meet, but the building was empty, according to the Fars News agency affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is known as an influential but reclusive figure who operated within the power structure built by his father, who was killed Saturday in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran.
He has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which Iranian officials said pushed for his appointment, arguing he has the qualifications needed to guide Iran during the current crisis.
“Mojtaba is the wisest pick right now because he is intimately familiar with running and coordinating security and military apparatuses,” said Tehran-based analyst Mehdi Rahmati.
Vali Nasr, an expert on Iran and Shia Islam at Johns Hopkins University, said his selection could signal a stronger influence by hard-liners aligned with the Revolutionary Guards.
Rahmati said some in the public could react negatively to Mojtaba Khamenei’s possible appointment, while supporters of the government may view him as a continuation of a leader they see as martyred.
Other finalists include Alireza Arafi, a cleric and jurist who is part of the three-person transitional leadership council, and Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic revolution’s founder Ruhollah Khomeini. Both are viewed as moderates.
Abdolreza Davari, a politician close to Mojtaba Khamenei, said he could emerge as a leader similar to Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman and described him as “extremely progressive.”
Earlier Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump said many people his administration had considered potential Iranian leaders had been killed in the recent strikes.
The Assembly of Experts consists of 88 senior Shiite clerics elected in public elections who are responsible under Iran’s constitution for appointing, supervising and dismissing the supreme leader.
This will be only the second time the body selects a supreme leader in the Islamic Republic’s 47-year history. In 1989, it chose Ali Khamenei, who ruled for more than four decades.
Iranian authorities said Mojtaba Khamenei’s wife Zahra Adel, his mother Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh and one of his sons were killed alongside his father in strikes on Saturday.
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