Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen as the new supreme leader of Iran on March 8. The Iranian Council of Experts - an agency of 88 clerical members tasked with selecting the supreme leader of the country - called on the Iranian people to maintain solidarity and commit to supporting Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei.
Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei has never run for office or undergone a public vote, but for decades, he has been a major influence in the close circle of the previous supreme leader, cultivating a deep relationship with the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In recent years, Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei has increasingly been considered the leading potential successor to the position of Iran's supreme leader. Mr. Ali Khamenei served as president for nearly 8 years and then held absolute power for 36 years, before dying in an attack on his residence in Tehran on February 28.
Middle East media commented that Mr. Mojtaba Khamenei's succession is a clear sign that tougher factions in the Iranian government still hold power and shows that the government is unlikely to want to reach an agreement or negotiate in the short term.
Mojtaba Khamenei has never publicly discussed the issue of succession because his rise to supreme leadership in Iran would evoke the Pahlavi monarchy before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
He mostly maintains a discreet attitude, does not lecture in public, does not preach on Fridays, or has political speeches. To the point that many Iranians have never heard his voice, even though they know he is a rising star in the puppet government for many years.
Mojtaba Khamenei began to build close relationships with the Islamic Revolutionary Guards when he was young, when he served in the Habib Battalion of this force in many campaigns of the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Some of his comrades, including other clerics, later held leadership positions in Iran's security and intelligence apparatus at that time.
According to Western media, Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is subject to sanctions from the US and the West, and has also accumulated an economic empire with assets in many countries.
His name did not appear in any alleged transactions, but he is believed to have transferred billions of USD in recent years through a network of close associates and associates linked to the Iranian authorities.
Bloomberg has pointed out the connection between the new Supreme Leader Khamenei and Ali Ansari - the owner of Ayandeh Bank, which went bankrupt for lending money to unnamed close associates and accumulating huge debts. The dissolution of this bank has contributed to pushing inflation in Iran higher.
The religious prestige of the new Supreme Leader Khamenei is also a matter of concern because he is a hojatoleslam - a middle-ranking cleric, not a higher rank like ayatollah.
But the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was also not an ayatollah when he came to power in 1989 and the law was amended to suit his rise to power. A similar compromise could also happen to Mr. Mojtaba.
