BREAKING: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s SON is named as Iran’s new supreme leader

March 3, 2026

From the Daily Mail: Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly been appointed Iran’s new Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba, 56, Ali Khamenei’s second oldest son, has strong links to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts ‘under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards’, according to Iranian opposition outlet Iran International.

Mojtaba is not a high-ranking cleric, has never held office and does not have an official role in the regime.

But he served in the Iranian armed forces during the Iran-Iraq war and is believed to wield considerable influence behind the scenes. He has been touted as a possible successor to his father for years.

Ironically, the report notes that Mojtaba was not on the list of three individuals his father had identified last year as potential successors.

Born in 1969, Mojtaba reportedly studied under religious conservatives in Islamic seminaries in the Shiite holy city Qom, the Daily Mail revealed.

Many are warning that Mojtaba is even worse than his father was.

🚨 BREAKING: Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Khamenei, has been selected as the new Supreme Leader of Iran as the country burns, per NYP, citing Iran Int’l

Many believe Mojtaba is actually MORE of an extremist than his father, so the US’s response to this is going to be… pic.twitter.com/bNZpT3l1z3

— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) March 3, 2026

Independent journalist Adam Cochran delivered a chilling analysis:

Mojtaba was the key figure that leveraged IRGC forces and secret police to crush down 2009 protests against his father’s regime.

These crackdowns were ones where reports included protestors beaten to death, dragged through the streets, hung from public cranes, and where rape was used as a weapon of compliance.

Majtoba strongly believed in his father’s regional ambitions and believed Iran should leverage the Basij paramilitary group, as well as its proxies in Hezbollah and Yemeni Rebels to expand Iranian influence.

He has a deep hatred of America who has been in a long sanctions battle with him.

Unlike other potential Supreme Leaders who would be more ideologically driven in a religious sense, and hands off on the secular, Mojtaba is more likely to consolidate power and control the other branches of Iran like his father did, but by pushing them forward instead of reigning them in.

He is also more likely to push the message of his father as a martyr and frame this as a religious fight for revenge.

The fact the IRGC pushed the clerics in this vote highlights the control they’ve seized in this process, and that they expect Mojtaba Khamenei to uphold his father’s ambition through strength.

The US can expect this fight to expand regionally, and be deeply insurgency focused.

This is one of the worst possible outcomes.

The US hopes for a diplomatic offramp in Iran are over!

Mojtaba Khamenei the son of former Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been elected as the Supreme Leader, taking over from temporary Supreme Leader Arafi.

This is bad.

Initially considered dead, Mojtaba is a former member of the… https://t.co/CavEQOfTyp

— Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) March 3, 2026