Iran’s military establishment appears to have played a decisive role in elevating the country’s new supreme leader, even though his own father reportedly opposed the idea of him inheriting the post.According to reports, the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei followed intense pressure from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which saw him as a leader likely to back its hardline agenda.The 56-year-old cleric became the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic after the death of his father, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Tehran on February 28 amid an escalating regional war. Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for choosing the country’s supreme leader, formally announced Mojtaba’s appointment days later.
Ali Khamenei reportedly opposed the idea
One of the most striking claims to emerge after the leadership transition is that the elder Khamenei himself did not want his son to succeed him.“In Khamenei’s will, he explicitly asked Mojtaba not to be named as successor,” Khosro Isfahani, research director for the opposition-linked National Union for Democracy, told the New York Post.Isfahani said the late supreme leader believed his son lacked the experience needed to run the Islamic Republic.“Mojtaba is an impotent young cleric who has achieved nothing in terms of political life,” he said. “All these years, he has been nothing without his father’s name.”According to the report, Mojtaba had never held a formal government post before being elevated to the most powerful office in Iran. Instead, he spent much of his career working behind the scenes within his father’s office, known as the beyt, where he developed strong links with security and military figures.Leaked US diplomatic cables from the 2000s had previously described him as “the power behind the robes,” suggesting he wielded influence within the system long before his public rise.
Revolutionary Guards’ decisive role
Several Iranian insiders told Reuters that the Revolutionary Guards were instrumental in securing Mojtaba’s appointment.The Guards, already one of the most powerful institutions in Iran, reportedly pushed hard for his selection, seeing him as a more pliant leader who would support their hardline policies both at home and abroad.Sources told Reuters that senior clerics and political figures initially raised objections, partly because the succession appeared hereditary and partly due to fears that it would strengthen the military’s dominance of the political system.The opposition delayed the announcement of Mojtaba’s appointment for hours, according to Reuters, but the Guards eventually forced the issue.One insider said the IRGC had directly contacted members of the Assembly of Experts, pressing them to support Mojtaba’s elevation. Another source said critics of the decision were warned against opposing it.The Guards also argued that the wartime situation required a rapid decision and a leader who would stand firmly against the United States.Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, told Reuters that Mojtaba “owes his position to the Revolutionary Guards and as such he is not going to be as supreme as his father was”.Some Iranian insiders fear the development could accelerate the transformation of the Islamic Republic into what one source described as a “military state with only a thin veneer of religious legitimacy”.The elder Khamenei had spent decades balancing competing power centres — clerical elites, elected politicians and the Revolutionary Guards — while keeping the military establishment in check.But with Mojtaba’s rise, that balance may have shifted.Sources told Reuters the Guards have already expanded their influence since the outbreak of war and are likely to wield greater control over strategic decisions under the new leadership.