Ali Khamenei's son takes over as supreme leader

Expert: "Top of the death list"

Felix Wilow, 

Isak Fritzon

Updated 20.06 | Published 13.06

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has been appointed as the new leader of Iran. Photo: Vahid Salemi/AP

Ali Khamenei had one last wish.

The new leader would be "hated by the enemy".

Now his son has been elected, Reuters reports.

The Assembly of Experts' choice landed on Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, as Iran's new supreme leader.

He received a majority of the votes and the decision will be made public soon.

Mojtaba Khamenei is said to have been chosen in accordance with his father Ali Khamenei's last wish: that Iran's next leader should be "hated by the enemy".

“Even the great Satan has mentioned his name,” says one of the men on the council.

             

            Trump has called Mojtaba Khamenei a “lightweight”. Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP

Trump: “Unacceptable choice”

The Council of Experts consists of 88 people, all of whom were selected because of their loyalty to the regime, writes Sky News.

According to US President Donald Trump, Mojtaba Khamenei is an “unacceptable choice”.

– This increases his risk of becoming a direct target for assassination attempts from both Israel and the US, says Anders Persson, Middle East expert and researcher at Linnaeus University.

            

            Middle East expert Anders Persson. Photo: Johan Nilsson/TT

Israel and the US have said that whoever takes over the Revolutionary Guard will be a target for attacks.

– The question is how he will govern the country given that he ends up at the top of the death list. It is not an easy job he undertakes – everyone can agree on that.

Anders Persson says that it may be difficult to exert influence if he is forced to stay hidden in a bunker deep underground.

He also finds it difficult to believe that Mojtaba Khamenei is particularly popular on the streets of Iran.

– He is associated with everything to do with his father's regime.

 

Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike at the beginning of the war. Photo: AP 

Wife died in airstrike

Mojtaba Khamenei is described as an influential religious leader, even though he is not one of the highest-ranking ayatollahs, Reuters reports.

He has opposed reformists who want to get closer to the West and has close ties to the Revolutionary Guard, which gives him great influence within Iran's security apparatus.

Although he has long been seen as his father's closest advisor, he has never held any formal position in the Islamic Republic's regime.

Mojtba's wife, who was killed in an airstrike during the war, was the daughter of the influential and hardline politician Gholamali Haddad-Adel.