"By contrast, the first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, led Iran to revolution in 1979 and the second, Mojtaba's father, Ali Khamenei, had been president for eight years before he was chosen by the Assembly of Experts within a day of Khomenei's death. Before he was catapulted to power following his father's assassination, Mojtaba had lived the life of a backroom bureaucrat, acting as the path to access to his father as a 2007 US diplomatic cable explained."
"Yet as the consummate insider, acting as deputy chief of staff in the supreme leader's office for two decades, he has long been the candidate of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), the heart of Iran's military industrial complex. One western diplomat said his selection shows Iran is doubling down on the security state."
"There is only one video of him speaking in public, to a jurisprudence class, and there has been no substantive interview marking out his views. Yet in reality he injects a new unpredictable, even mysterious, element into the Middle East crisis, since just as he is unknown to Washington, so he is a figure of deep obscurity to ordinary Iranians."
Iran announced Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader, presenting the transition as reassuring continuity amid global economic crisis. However, his appointment introduces significant uncertainty to Middle Eastern dynamics. Unlike previous supreme leaders who had public prominence—Ruhollah Khomeini led the 1979 revolution and Ali Khamenei served as president—Mojtaba operated as a backroom bureaucrat with minimal public visibility. Only one video exists of him speaking publicly, and no substantive interviews document his views. Despite this obscurity, he served as deputy chief of staff in the supreme leader's office for two decades, making him the Revolutionary Guards' preferred candidate. Western analysts interpret his selection as Iran strengthening its security state and increasing the IRGC's institutional power within the government.
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Read at www.theguardian.com
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