Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of the war that the United States and Israel launched on Iran, has been selected as Iran’s new supreme leader, state media reports.

The 56-year-old hardline cleric’s mother, wife, and one of his sisters were also killed in the strike that killed his father, but the younger Khamenei was reportedly not present and has so far survived the intense bombing of Iran.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts – the ⁠88-member clerical body that selects the country’s supreme leader – has called upon Iranians to maintain unity and pledge support to Mojtaba Khamenei.

In a statement circulated on state media on Sunday, the assembly said that Khamenei was chosen based on a “decisive vote”. It urged all Iranians, “especially the elites and intellectuals of the seminaries and universities”, to “pledge allegiance to the leadership and maintain unity”.

Khamenei has never run for office or been subjected to a public vote, but has for decades been a highly influential figure in the inner circle of the previous supreme leader, cultivating deep ties to the paramilitary Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

In recent years, Khamenei had increasingly been touted as a top potential replacement for his father, who was president for nearly eight years and then held absolute power for 36 years, before being killed in attacks on his compound in Tehran on Saturday, February 28.

The younger Khamenei’s ascension is a clear sign that more hardline factions in Iran’s establishment retain power, and could indicate that the government has little desire to agree to a deal or negotiations in the short term.

Mojtaba Khamenei has never discussed the issue of succession publicly, a sensitive topic, considering that his ascension to the position of supreme leader would effectively create a dynasty reminiscent of the Pahlavi monarchy before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Instead, Khamenei has largely kept a low profile, not giving public lectures, Friday sermons, or political addresses – to the point that many Iranians have not heard his voice, despite knowing for years that he was a star rising within the theocratic establishment.

Accusations

For nearly two decades, local and foreign-based opponents have linked Khamenei’s name to the violent suppression of Iranian protesters.

The reformist camp within the Islamic Republic of Iran first accused him of tampering with elections and wielding the IRGC’s Basij force to crack down on peaceful protesters during the Green Movement of 2009, which took form after populist politician Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected as president in a controversial vote, which was followed by a crackdown on reformist leaders and their supporters.

Basij forces have since been at the heart of the establishment’s crackdown against multiple waves of nationwide protests, most prominently two months ago, when the United Nations and international human rights organisations say state forces killed thousands of people, mostly on the nights of January 8 and 9.

The late supreme leader and the establishment have blamed “terrorists” and “rioters”, armed, trained and funded by the US and Israel, for the unprecedented killings, as they have previously done during previous rounds of anti-establishment protests.

Mid-ranking cleric

Mojtaba Khamenei began developing close ties within the IRGC from his younger years, when he served in the Habib Battalion of the force during multiple operations in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s. Several of his comrades, including other clerics, went on to obtain leading posts in the security and intelligence apparatus of the then-nascent Islamic Republic.

Khamenei, who is under US and Western sanctions, has also amassed an economic empire involving assets in multiple countries, according to reports in Western media outlets.

His name is not believed to appear in any of the alleged transactions, but he has reportedly moved billions of dollars over the years through a network of insiders and associates linked with the Iranian establishment.

Bloomberg tied Khamenei to Ali Ansari, who was in the spotlight late last year after his Bank Ayandeh was forcibly dissolved by the state because it went bankrupt due to handing out loans to unnamed insiders and accruing huge debts. The dissolution of the bank helped push Iran’s rampant inflation higher, making Iranians poorer, as the losses had to be compensated partly through public funds.

Neither Khamenei nor Ansari has publicly addressed their links and the allegations, which also include the purchase of luxury property in European countries.

Khamenei’s religious credentials have also been an issue of contention, since he is a hojatoleslam, a mid-level cleric, rather than the higher rank of ayatollah. But his father was not an ayatollah either when he became the country’s leader in 1989, and the law was amended to accommodate him. A similar compromise could be possible for Mojtaba as well.

For now, it remains unclear when or how Iran will proceed with announcing new leaders, as it once again imposes a nationwide internet blackout and restrictions on the flow of information amid an intense bombing campaign by the US and Israel across the country.