"Rigid in his anti-western views, Mojtaba Khamenei is not the candidate Donald Trump would have wanted. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said on Tuesday that Iran was run by religious fanatic lunatics and Khamenei's appointment is hardly likely to dispel that opinion."
"His son is believed to have been the choice of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Israeli defence minister, Gideon Saar, has warned he will be assassinated. Ayatollah Seyed Khatani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the body that chooses the new supreme leader, said the assembly was close to selecting a leader."
"There has been speculation for more than a decade that he would be his father's successor, which grew when Ebrahim Raisi, the elected president and favourite of Khamenei, was killed in a helicopter crash. Mojtaba Khamenei was born in 1969 and studied theology after graduating from high school."
Mojtaba Khamenei is the leading candidate to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader of Iran. The 88-member Assembly of Experts will make the final selection from six candidates. Mojtaba, born in 1969, studied theology and served in the Iran-Iraq War at age 17. He is backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and represents a continuation of hardline anti-Western policies. His appointment would signal Iran's resistance to accommodation with the United States under the Trump administration. Israeli Defense Minister Gideon Saar has warned of assassination threats. The formal announcement may be delayed until after Ali Khamenei's funeral.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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