TEHRAN — Iran’s Assembly of Experts has named Mojtaba Khamenei to replace his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, state media reported on Sunday.
Mr. Mojtaba, a mid-ranking cleric with close ties to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, had long been viewed by elements of Iran’s ruling establishment as a potential successor to his father, who was killed after the United States and Israel launched strikes on Iran.
His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, also died in the U.S.-Israeli strikes according to Iranian authorities.
Although Iran’s ruling ideology frowns on the principle of hereditary succession, he has a powerful following within the Guards and his dead father’s still-influential office.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, “is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts”, the clerical body said in a statement.
It said that the body “did not hesitate for a minute” in choosing a new leader, despite “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime”.
U.S. President Donald Trump has previously dismissed the younger Khamenei as a “lightweight”, and insisted again on Sunday that he should have a say in the new leader’s appointment.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News before the announcement was made.
But Tehran’s top diplomat said that the decision was Iran’s alone, adding it would “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs”.
Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went on to demand Mr. Trump “apologise to people of the region” for starting the war.
Israel’s military had previously warned any successor that “we will not hesitate to target you”.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards pledged allegiance on Sunday to the country’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, after he was appointed his father’s successor by the Assembly of Experts.
“The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps… is ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands of the Guardian Jurist of the time, His Eminence Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Khamenei”, the Guards said in a statement. — (Agencies)