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On the 28th February 2026, Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed.
The attack, coined ‘Operation Epic Fury’, was a joint effort between US and Israeli forces, with Trump claiming it was “to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime”, specifically related to the alleged development of intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons.
Succeeding Ayatollah Khamenei, is his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei.
But what do we need to know about him?
Mojtaba worked closely under his father during his rule, according to a WikiLeaks release, US diplomatic cables described him as “the power behind the robes” and a “capable and forceful” figure.
Mojtaba has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a crucial, multi-service part of the Iranian Armed Forces. Established by the first supreme leader of Iran after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the IRGC’S main role is to uphold the integrity of the Islamic Republic.
The IRGC, specifically its aerospace force, is responsible for the retaliatory attacks across the region. Iran sent missiles to Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. Jordan and Iraq also intercepted missiles, and Oman was hit by an Iranian drone strike.
Under his father’s rule, Mojtaba worked with “IRGC commanders and intelligence units, managing sensitive security and political files”.
It is clear Mojtaba was a central part of the Iranian regime his father ran and had more power and control behind closed doors than once thought.
Mojtaba also has a reputation for being more hardline than his father. He joined the IRGC in the late 1980s and served in the final years of the Iran-Iraq war. He also studied under clerics, religious officials who are very powerful and central to the regime. He studied under these clerics in Qom, the “largest centre for Shi’a scholarship in the world”.
This deep entrenchment in Iran’s institutions, in the academic and religious sphere and the political and military sphere, means Mojtaba has significant influence over Iranian politics.
Not only is Mojtaba more hardline than his father, but he also has a stronger pro-nuclear stance. Policy analysts suggest that Mojtaba would be likely to use “missile and symmetric tools to demonstrate resilience” and that he favours nuclear weapons more than his father.
While Mojtaba seemingly has a heavy influence within the regime, the Iranian people have never “heard his voice”, emphasising his work behind the scenes. This also demonstrates the current threat to his life, as he is not giving any political addresses or public appearances, with his location being kept concealed.
During the strikes on the 28th February, alongside his father, Mojtaba’s mother, wife, sister, brother-in-law and son were killed. Reports say that even more of his family members could have also been killed.
Der Spiegel claims that Donald Trump’s “planlosigkeit”, literally translated to ‘planlessness’, is the real threat for this global crisis.
In killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with no obvious plan, Trump has left behind a new Ayatollah.
Mojtaba is closely affiliated with the IRGC. He is a man who is pro-nuclear weapon programmes in Iran. He is also a man who has had much of his family wiped out by the US.
If Trump wanted to ‘defend the American people’, he should have thought about who he was leaving behind.
Edited by Kira Purewal
‘Mojtaba Khamenei and his son at the Victory Day march’, by Hossein Velayati, 10th Feb 2027 // CC BY-4.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mojtaba_Khamenei_and_his_son_in_22_Bahman_1395.jpg
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