Meet Mojtaba Khamenei: Ruthless ideologue, supreme leader's son, and conveniently, a very wealthy Man. Religion has always been good for business.
Mojtaba Khamenei © Mena Today
Iran on Sunday indicated it had chosen Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba as his successor.
"The name of Khamenei will continue," said Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the clerical council charged with electing a new leader, in a video published in Iranian media.
"The vote has been cast and will be announced soon," Eshkevari said, without providing further details.
The council's secretary, Hosseini Bushehri, would announce the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei - who was killed earlier in the conflict - Ahmad Alamolhoda, another cleric, told state media.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday Washington should have a say in the selection. "If he doesn't get approval from us he's not going to last long," he told ABC News.
Israel said it continued to target senior Iranian figures, including Abolqasem Babaian, the recently appointed head of the military office of the supreme leader, killed in a Saturday strike.
Mojtaba Khamenei has long exercised influence behind the scenes through close ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and networks linked to the leadership’s economic interests.
Iran's clerical leadership chose confrontation over compromise in appointing Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, a move regional officials say is a direct rebuke to U.S. President Donald Trump, who had declared the son "unacceptable".
Lebanon's Foreign Minister Joe Raggi delivered a scathing indictment of Hezbollah, accusing the group of once again sacrificing Lebanon's national interests on the altar of Iranian foreign policy.
For too long, the West treated Iran’s nuclear program as a negotiable irritant and its missile arsenal as a manageable nuisance. That fiction is over.
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