Background and career
Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei (born 8 September 1969) is an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who has served as the supreme leader of Iran since 2026. A member of the Khamenei family and the second son of second supreme leader Ali Khamenei, he previously served as Vakil of the Supreme Leader during his father's rule from 2008 to 2026. Born in Mashhad, Khamenei was raised in a conservative religious household, and graduated from high school in Tehran. He then studied Islamic theology under the guidance of his father and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. He joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1987 and served in the Iran–Iraq War. In 1989, he began studying in Qom to become a cleric, and later joined the Qom Seminary as a theology teacher. He took control of the Basij paramilitary volunteer militia in 2009. Western analysts long considered Khamenei a likely candidate to replace his father as Supreme Leader, despite some unverified reports that Ali Khamenei had opposed his accession. Following his father's assassination during the 2026 Iran war, Khamenei was elected the third supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts. Khamenei was injured in the airstrike that killed his father and has remained absent from public view since his appointment, causing confusion over his fate. The US has placed a $10 million bounty via the Rewards for Justice Program for information on him. In political ideology and jurisprudence, Khamenei is considered to be more hardline than his father and has close ties to some of the "most ideologically extremist clerics" according to a report from the Atlantic Council, a pro-NATO think tank.
Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei was born on 8 September 1969 in Mashhad as the second child of Ali Khamenei and Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh. He was named after Navvab Safavi (born Mojtaba Mir-Lohi), a radical Shia cleric about whom Ali Khamenei had said that he "first kindled the fire of revolutionary Islam in my heart." His five siblings are Mostafa, his elder brother, Masoud and Meysam, his younger brothers, and Boshra and Hoda, his younger sisters. His paternal grandfather, Javad Khamenei, was a Twelver Shia cleric and scholar. Khamenei has Persian ancestry, but to a lesser extent, Azerbaijani Turk ancestry, with his Azeri roots being traced back to Khamaneh, a small town in East Azerbaijan where his surname originated from, and he also has distant roots from Tafresh. His family traces its lineage to Husayn ibn Ali, the son of Ali, the first Shia Imam, and the maternal grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, hence Khamenei's middle name is Hosseini (spelled Husayni in Arabic; meaning "descendant of Husayn"). Khamenei was raised in a conservative religious household, where he encountered Islamic learning and revolutionary ideas from a young age. After graduating from Alavi high school in Tehran, he studied Islamic theology. His early teachers included his own father and Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. In 1989, Khamenei began his studies in Qom to become a cleric. Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani and Mohammad Bagher Kharazi were among his teachers there. Khamenei has completed specialized studies in psychology and psychoanalysis.
Khamenei taught theology in the Qom Seminary; from 2004 he taught Kharij-e Fiqh (advanced jurisprudence) courses for approximately two decades and was considered the instructor of one of the most heavily attended advanced seminary classes. The Dars-e Kharij is the highest level of jurisprudential instruction and a prerequisite for attaining the rank of mujtahid, a scholar qualified to perform independent legal reasoning (ijtihad) in Islamic law.
Khamenei first joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) around 1987 after finishing high school at age 17. He was part of the Habib bin Muzahir Battalion, and he served together with Qasem Soleimani, Hossein Hamadani and Hossein Taeb, who would later command the IRGC. He took part in several operations of the Iran–Iraq War, including Operation Beit ol-Moqaddas 2, Operation Dawn 10 and Operation Mersad. In 2009, it was reported that Khamenei had assumed leadership of the Basij, one of five branches of the IRGC. Reformist critics blamed him for suppressing the protests over the 2009 presidential election. Despite having control over the Basij, The Guardian argued in 2009 that "[t]he strength of Mojtaba's following has not been demonstrated", and that he "by no means has the theological status" to rise to Supreme Leader. In 2023, Iran International published leaked reports from the IRGC, revealing that Khamenei effectively controlled the Basij and that he exercised significant influence over the assignment and dismissal of personnel in the Intelligence Protection Organization.
Several Western analysts considered Khamenei a possible successor to his father, and multiple Western sources considered him Ali Khamenei's heir apparent. In 2014, as well as 2025, it was reported that Ali's successor was deemed to have been decided but not disclosed publicly. Prior to his death, Ali had not publicly discussed his replacement, and some reports said that he opposed Mojtaba succeeding him; US intelligence indicated that Ali considered Mojtaba unintelligent and unqualified. Some analysts considered Mojtaba Khamenei's potential accession as presenting a problem, as the Supreme Leader needs to be elected by the Assembly of Experts, though The Guardian noted that the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, exerted a strong influence in favour of the choice of Ali Khamenei. The Iranian constitution dictates the adherence to Khomeini's interpretation of the principle of Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist (velayat-e faqih). According to this interpretation, the Supreme Leader must be a mujtahid, capable of interpreting Sharia law. Khamenei is a hojjatoleslam (a rank below that of ayatollah). During the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, Khamenei was one of the clerics speculated as a possible successor as supreme leader. However, he was considered unlikely to succeed his father. The Middle East Institute opined that Khamenei appointing his own son as successor would cause conflict within the Iranian political and religious leadership, as it would be a sign that the revolutionary Islamic system of government had evolved to dynastic rule.
After his father's assassination in the 2026 Iran war, Khamenei was considered a likely candidate to replace him as Supreme Leader. The Daily Telegraph reported that over the years Khamenei had built a "loyalty structure that spanned the country", at the apex of which stood the IRGC, and it would "legitimise his leadership when the moment came". According to Iran International, the IRGC pressured the Assembly of Experts to elect Khamenei. There was strong opposition from some members of the council, including eight who stated that they would boycott an online electoral meeting planned for 5 March. Questions regarding the voting process itself also arose; the assembly building had been destroyed prior to the vote, and unlike the election of Ali Khamenei, which followed a period of relative tranquility allowing multiple meetings on the issue, the election of Mojtaba occurred in the absence of such stability. On 8 March, the Assembly of Experts announced that Mojtaba was elected Supreme Leader in a "unanimous vote". On 5 March, US president Donald Trump said that Khamenei's election would be "unacceptable" and that he had to be involved in the selection of Iran's next leader. Following his election, Trump said that he was "disappointed" by the selection, and that Khamenei "cannot live in peace". Israel said it considered Khamenei, like his father, a target for assassination. According to an Iran International analysis, Khamenei's election marked the completion of the Islamic Republic's shift away from public backing. Analysts and scholars described it as an indication that Iran had returned to hereditary rule after abandoning it following the 1979 revolution. Many Iranian social media users mocked the appointment, and Iranian protesters chanted "Death to Mojtaba" from their homes.
