Explained | Who is Mojtaba Khamenei, frontrunner to be Iran's Supreme Leader

In the wake of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death in a US-Israeli strike, Iran is confronting one of the most consequential decisions in its modern history: who will lead the Islamic Republic next. At the centre of that debate is Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the late supreme leader who has become the front-runner to succeed his father.

Who is Mojtaba Khamenei?

Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei was born in 1969 in Mashhad, one of Iran’s holiest cities, as the second-eldest son of Ali Khamenei. Like many clerical families in Iran’s religious establishment, he was raised with a strong focus on Islamic scholarship and entered seminary studies in Qom, the heart of Shiite theology.

Despite his lineage, Mojtaba’s name was rarely seen on the front pages. He never held prominent public office or the highest clerical titles. Instead, he carved out influence more quietly, working behind the scenes in the corridors of power in Tehran.

Over time, he became a key power broker within the regime, notable not for overt public leadership but for deep ties to Iran’s security and military institutions, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij militia.

Mojtaba’s path into Iran’s power structures has several distinct features.

After high school, he pursued theology, studying under prominent clerics and his father, eventually gaining the title of Hojjatoleslam, a mid-rank clerical status -- a credential that gives him religious legitimacy but not the highest scholarly rank typically associated with supreme leadership.

He joined the IRGC in the late 1980s during the final phase of the Iran-Iraq War, cementing enduring ties with Iran’s most powerful military institution. His lifelong connections to the Guard have made him a central figure in Iran’s security apparatus and a familiar presence among hard-line factions.

According to a report by the New York Times, senior clerics responsible for selecting Iran’s next supreme leader met on Tuesday to deliberate, and the son of the slain former leader, emerged as the clear front-runner, according to three Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations.

According to the report, Vali Nasr, an expert of Iran and Shiite Islam at Johns Hopkins University, said Mojtaba Khamenei would be a surprising choice and a potentially telling one. "He was slated to become the successor for a long time,” Nasr said. “But for the past two years, it seemed to have dropped off from the radar. If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge," he added.

Other candidates who have emerged as finalists are Ali Reza Arafi, a cleric and jurist who is part of the three-person transition council of leadership named after Ali Khamenei was killed, and Hassan Khomeini, grandson of the Islamic revolution’s founding father, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.