Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly been appointed Iran's new Supreme Leader, chosen by the regime's Assembly of Experts under pressure from the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to Iranian opposition outlet Iran International.

The elder Khamenei was killed on Saturday by joint US-Israeli strikes. His son now inherits the wreckage.

As reported by the Daily Mail, the 88-person assembly met Tuesday in the Shiite holy city of Qom to find a successor. What emerged was not a consensus pick from the regime's clerical establishment but a coronation engineered by the IRGC. The three senior clerics Ali Khamenei reportedly identified last year as potential successors? Mojtaba was not among them. The old Supreme Leader himself is said to have indicated opposition to his son's candidacy.

None of that mattered. The Revolutionary Guards wanted their man, and they got him.

A Dynasty Built on Rubble

Born in 1969 in the holy city of Mashhad, Mojtaba Khamenei served in the Iranian armed forces during the Iran-Iraq war and later studied under religious conservatives in Islamic seminaries in Qom. He is believed to wield considerable influence behind the scenes, a figure who operated in the shadows of his father's regime while amassing a personal fortune that tells its own story.

Despite being sanctioned by the US in 2019, Mojtaba is said to oversee an investment empire of over £100 million, with access to luxury properties in north London and bank accounts in the UK, Switzerland, the UAE, and Liechtenstein. He is said to own 11 properties on The Bishops Avenue, held through a network of shell companies, one of which is registered in the tax haven of the Isle of Man.

So the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, the man who will preach austerity and martyrdom to the Iranian people, parks his wealth in British real estate and Swiss bank accounts. Theocracy runs on hypocrisy like an engine runs on fuel.

The Strikes That Reshaped Iran's Leadership

Saturday's joint US-Israeli operation did not merely kill the Supreme Leader. It carved through the upper ranks of the regime. Among the dead are Ali Shamkhani, one of the regime's top advisers, General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of the Revolutionary Guard, and hardline former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mojtaba's wife, Zahra Adel, and his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, are also among the dead from Saturday's strikes.

Israeli and US strikes also flattened the building where the assembly met, though there was no information on any potential casualties from that specific attack.

President Trump told Iran's surviving leaders it's "too late" to talk. He warned the "hardest hits" are yet to come and promised to retaliate after the US embassy in Saudi Arabia was attacked by drones. Trump told ABC News:

"The attack was so successful it knocked out most of the candidates."

He added that he had "three very good choices" for the next potential leader for Iran, but did not reveal who these were.

Retaliation Already Underway

The fighting entered its fourth day with no signs of de-escalation. On Monday night, Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told state TV that the killing of the Supreme Leader was a "religious crime" that will have serious consequences.

On Tuesday, the US Consulate building in Dubai was struck by a drone. The Dubai Media Office stated:

"The competent authorities in Dubai succeeded in extinguishing a limited fire in the vicinity of the U.S. Consulate in Dubai resulting from a drone targeting operation, and the incident did not result in any injuries."

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the drone is understood to have struck a car park adjacent to the consulate building. Videos posted to social media on Tuesday evening showed the aftermath.

What Comes Next

The selection of Mojtaba Khamenei reveals the regime's narrowing options. This was not a succession plan. It was a scramble. The IRGC, having lost its top commander and facing an existential military campaign, installed a loyalist it could control. The clerical establishment, diminished and desperate, acquiesced.

Iran's theocratic model has always claimed divine legitimacy for its leadership. Hereditary succession punctures that claim entirely. A father-to-son transfer of supreme religious authority looks less like the will of God and more like the House of Assad. The regime has spent decades distinguishing itself from monarchies. Now it behaves like one.

The hardline president Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024. The elder Khamenei is dead. The senior clerics groomed for succession are either gone or sidelined. What remains is a 56-year-old shadow operator with £100 million in foreign assets, propped up by the Revolutionary Guards, presiding over a regime that is being systematically dismantled from the outside while hollowing itself out from within.

Iran's revolution devours its own. It always has. Now it has run out of everyone else to consume.