Mojtaba Khamenei

Aged 56, Mojtaba lacks the marja theological credentials the constitution requires under Article 109. His power base is the IRGC and Basij paramilitary, not the clerical establishment. The Assembly of Experts appointed him on 7 March 2026 in an emergency online session after its Qom headquarters was destroyed; at least eight members boycotted citing IRGC pressure. The first dynastic succession in the Islamic Republic's 47-year history, it followed Israeli strikes that killed his father Ali Khamenei on 28 February. His wife and son were killed in the same strike he narrowly survived.

Mojtaba's authentication pattern degraded through four stages. He made no public appearance from 28 February to early April; state media applied the 'Janbaz' (disabled veteran) designation after 33 days of silence. He broke silence via a text statement read by another person, then briefly by audio conference. By 23 April that audio channel closed: Israel Hayom, corroborated by Times of Israel and Asharq Al-Awsat, reported he has undergone three leg surgeries, is awaiting a prosthetic, has severe face and lip burns, and communicates exclusively through handwritten messages in sealed envelopes carried by courier. On 30 April 2026 he issued a written statement read on state television asserting 'new management' of the Strait of Hormuz, warning that foreigners who arrived 'from thousands of kilometres away to act with greed and malice' would find 'no place in it, except at the bottom of its waters'. The statement declared Iran's nuclear and missile capabilities national assets that 'ninety million proud and honourable Iranians will protect just as they protect the country's waters'. On 9 May, his senior adviser Mohammad Mokhber publicly reframed Iran's Hormuz control as a strategic deterrent equivalent to a nuclear weapon — 'a capability on the level of an atomic bomb' — a doctrine statement attributed to Khamenei's court and coordinated with First Vice President Aref and Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baqaei on the same day.

On 14 May 2026 — Day 77 of the war and the first occasion of its kind since the conflict began — IRIB attributed 'new and decisive directives' for military operations directly to Mojtaba. It is the first formal operational-military directive attribution since the war opened on 28 February. He has not appeared publicly, on television, or in still photographs across all 77 days; the attribution exists entirely on paper, with no confirming broadcast or authenticated communication. The asymmetry that has defined his rule intensified: he issues directives; his existence cannot be independently verified. Whether Mojtaba is directing the IRGC or the IRGC is directing through Mojtaba remains the central unresolved question of Iranian governance. IDF spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin named him as an assassination target on 16 March.