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Who is Mojtaba Khamenei? Iran's new Supreme Leader from the Shadows:
Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, born on September 8, 1969, in Mashhad, Iran, is a Shia cleric and politician who has recently ascended to the position of Supreme Leader of Iran following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a targeted strike.
As the second-eldest son in the Khamenei family, Mojtaba grew up amid Iran's revolutionary turmoil, with his father rising as a key opponent to the shah. After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the family relocated to Tehran, where Mojtaba later served in the Iran-Iraq War from 1987 to 1988 as part of the Revolutionary Guard's Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion.
Despite lacking the high clerical rank of ayatollah and rarely appearing in public, Mojtaba has wielded significant behind-the-scenes influence for decades. He has deep ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary group, playing a pivotal role in suppressing the 2009 Green Movement protests following the disputed presidential election.
He supported hardline figures like Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005 and 2009 elections, helping to sideline reformist factions. In 2019, the U.S. sanctioned him for advancing his father's "destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives," including close collaboration with the Quds Force in supporting groups like Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Taliban.
Mojtaba's political stances embody a radical, pragmatic conservatism centered on the absolute survival of the Islamic Republic and the principle of Velayat-e Faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist). He prioritizes national security, rejecting democratic reforms that could undermine the theocratic system.
His worldview features staunch anti-Zionism and anti-imperialism, with deep hostility toward Israel and the United States, and the collective west, while bolstering Iran's proxy networks across the region.
Analysts describe him as an authoritarian pragmatist who might allow minor social concessions, like easing hijab enforcement, to quell unrest but maintains a "security-first" grip on power. A figure, possibly more radical than his father, who could work on speeding up the path towards nuclear armament, disregarding his father's previous fatwa.
Credit (The Global Eye )
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