Mojtaba Khamenei, a supreme leader under death threats and little hope of change

"Long before an Israeli-U.S. airstrike killed Ali Khamenei in Tehran on February 28, the name of his second son, Mojtaba, 56, was already being floated as his successor. Shahin Modarres, an international security analyst, noted a few days ago from Rome on the social network X that his selection was not surprising, given that, as the anecdote of the letter suggests, his rise to power had been brewing since those elections more than 20 years prior."

"The plan to promote the then-leader's son as the favorite for succession gained momentum after the young cleric and the Revolutionary Guard, the regime's powerful parallel army, were implicated in orchestrating the electoral fraud that brought Ahmadinejad to the presidency. According to Modarres, Mojtaba Khamenei was already the preferred candidate of the Revolutionary Guard, the core of Iran's military and security apparatus."

"Ayatollah Khamenei's response was prophetic: He [Mojtaba] is not an Aghazadeh, but Agha (Lord) himself. This is the title used by the most devoted followers of the Islamic Republic to refer to the supreme leader."

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has been designated as Iran's new Supreme Leader following his father Ali Khamenei's death in an Israeli-U.S. airstrike on February 28. His rise to power represents the culmination of a succession strategy that began over 20 years earlier, when he interfered in the 2005 presidential election on behalf of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The Revolutionary Guard, Iran's powerful parallel military force and core of the regime's hardline faction, has consistently supported Mojtaba's advancement. His selection as successor was not unexpected, as he had already been positioned as the preferred candidate among the Revolutionary Guard and hardline elements within the Islamic Republic's power structure.

Read at english.elpais.com