Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had long been considered a contender to the post of the country’s next paramount ruler – even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war last week.
US diplomats have for decades referred to younger Khamenei as “the power behind the robes” despite him being a secretive figure within the Islamic Republic.
Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since February 28, when the Israeli air strike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father and his wife, Zahra Haddad Adel.
He has likely gone into hiding as American and Israeli air strikes continue to pound Iran, though state-run Iranian media have not reported on his whereabouts.
With his father and wife considered by hardliners as martyrs in the war against America and Israel, the younger Khamenei’s stock likely rose with the ageing clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, tasked with selecting the country’s leader.
The Islamic republic’s supreme leader is at the heart of the country’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state. He serves as the commander-in-chief of the country’s military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
The country’s incoming supreme leader will gain control of an Iranian military and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon – should he choose to decree it.
He also takes power amid a US-Israeli war seeking to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat and military power, hoping also the Iranian people will revolt against the Iranian theocracy.
Theocratic dynasty
Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment comes despite the paradox of a potential theocratic dynasty ruling a republic that was built in opposition to the hereditary monarchy of the Pahlavi dynasty before it.
Other contenders for the leadership included Alireza Arafi, a member of the triumvirate that recently acted as interim leaders, as well as Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, a representative of the most conservative wing of the Shiite clergy, and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini.
Born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad, some 10 years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that would sweep Iran, Khamenei grew up as his father agitated against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
After the fall of the shah, Khamenei’s family moved to Tehran, Iran’s capital.
Khamenei fought in the Iran-Iraq war with a division of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, several of whom ascended to powerful intelligence positions within the force – likely with the backing of the Khamenei family.
After his father became supreme leader in 1989, Mojtaba Khamenei and his family soon had access to the billions of dollars and business assets spread across Iran’s many bonyads, or foundations funded from state industries and other wealth once held by the shah.
His own power rose alongside his father’s, working at the heart of the supreme leader’s “Beyt” office in downtown Tehran, as “a combination of aide-de-camp, confidant, guardian of the temple, and kingmaker”, according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based organisation.
“There is very little transparency in what the ‘Beyt’ does, and its actions are based on a lot of power games and patronage,” Jonathan Piron, a historian specializing in Iran for the Etopia research centre in Brussels, told FRANCE 24 in 2022.
“Mojtaba Khamenei was never elected; he was appointed to this position by his father, who wanted to surround himself with his most loyal supporters. Critics consider him a corrupt figure who benefits from his position at the head of the Office of the Supreme Leader because he is the son of Ali Khamenei.”
Khamenei’s critics have also decried his lack of theological knowledge as he only holds the title of “hojatoleslam” – an intermediate rank in the Shiite clergy.
According to Iran’s constitution, access to the highest office requires the rank of ayatollah marja (or “source of imitation”), being the head of a seminary, and proving many years of religious teaching experience.
A ‘forceful leader’
During his father’s rule Khamenei used his proximity to the leadership to amass his own power.
US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s suggested that he served as his father’s “principal gatekeeper” and had been forming his own power base within the country.
Khamenei “is widely viewed within the regime as a capable and forceful leader and manager who may someday succeed to at least a share of national leadership; his father may also see him in that light”, a 2008 cable read, also noting his lack of theological qualifications and age.
“Mojtaba is, however, due to his skills, wealth, and unmatched alliances, reportedly seen by a number of regime insiders as a plausible candidate for shared leadership of Iran upon his father’s demise, whether that demise is soon or years in the future,” it said.
The United States sanctioned him in 2019 during the first term of US President Donald Trump over working to “advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives”.
More recently, Khamenei worked closely with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard that violently suppressed nationwide protests in January, the US Treasury has said.
A Bloomberg investigation published in late January found that he has built up a vast network of secret and lucrative investments via real estate acquisitions made through shell companies in London, Frankfurt and Dubai.
(FRANCE 24 with AP and Reuters)
