After Devastating Strike, Iran Installs Mojtaba Khamenei as the New Supreme Leader
Mojtaba Khamenei has succeeded his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was assassinated in joint US-Israel attacks which began on 28 February 2026
Mojtaba Khamenei is Iran's new leader.
His elevation to supreme leader at the weekend unfolded not as a carefully managed succession but as a wartime consolidation of power.
The U.S.–Israel strike that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also wiped out much of Mojtaba’s immediate family, leaving the 56‑year‑old cleric to assume leadership in a moment defined by both national crisis and personal devastation.
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 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”.