Free Republic

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has been injured but is feeling well, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in an interview with the Corriere della Sera newspaper. More than 1,800 people have died and at least 12,500 have been injured in Iran, Lebanon, and Israel since the escalation of the Middle East conflict began, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. - Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei is feeling fine after being wounded, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Esmail Baghaei said. - He noted that three or four individuals had vied for the post,...

Iran’s newly appointed Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was a no-show at his own succession rally in Tehran — and observers speculate that he’s either wounded or hiding out in fear. As thousands gathered on Monday to celebrate Khamenei’s appointment as the country’s new supreme leader, the nepo-baby mullah was represented by a mere portrait — one that was half the size of dad Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s. The portrait of the dead leader took up the center of the stage, according to state media footage of the event. “It’s either he’s out cold in a hospital, or he’s scared and hiding...

Mojtaba Khamenei — the expected next supreme leader — was reportedly wounded in an Israeli air strike. The son of Iran’s slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei survived an assassination attempt made by Israel during the devastating launch of Lion’s Roar military operation Feb. 28, which occurred in tandem with the US’s Operation Epic Fury, Times of Israel reported on Saturday. Other strikes in the joint military attack killed his father and roughly 40 other high-ranking Islamic Republic leaders. Also killed was Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy. It’s not clear if...

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei who was eliminated in US-Israeli strikes, as the next Supreme Leader of Iran, according to a report by Iran International on Tuesday evening. According to the report, Mojtaba’s selection was made under heavy pressure from the Revolutionary Guards. Mojtaba, 56, lost his wife in the strike in which his father was eliminated. Earlier, the Assembly of Experts’ building in the city of Qom was bombed while votes were being counted to determine Khamenei’s successor. Due to fears of targeted eliminations, the 88 members of the Assembly of...

Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has a back-up plan to flee the country should his security forces fail to suppress protests or desert, according to an intelligence report shared with The Times. Khamenei, 86, plans to escape Tehran with a close circle of up to 20 aides and family, should he see that the army and security called on to quell the unrest are deserting, defecting or failing to follow orders. “The ‘plan B’ is for Khamenei and his very close circle of associates and family, including his son and nominated heir apparent, Mojtaba,” an intelligence source told The Times. Beni...

A report says senior conservative clerics are concerned over Ayatollah Khamenei's alleged attempt to groom his son for leadership. As protesters return to the streets in Iran to demonstrate against Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and the results of the recent election, a new report says that Mr. Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is leading the government's anti-protest militias. The Guardian reports that, according to "a politician with strong connections to the security apparatus" in Iran, Mr. Mojtaba's leading role in the crackdown has "dismayed many of the country's senior clerics, conservative politicians, and Revolutionary Guard generals."

There are few anecdotes about him, and pictures, at least ones that have appeared publicly, are scarce. The younger Khamenei operates behind an elaborate security structure, an overlapping world that stretches from Iran's Revolutionary Guards to the motorcycle-riding Basiji. That accumulation of control was used to outflank reformists such as Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hossein Ali Montazeri, revered figures of the Islamic Revolution who years ago had questioned the senior Khamenei's qualifications as supreme leader. The violence that has erupted over the last week -- state media have reported that 10 to 19 people have died -- were in part the...

Iran's supreme leader's second son, Mojtaba Khamenei, has emerged as one of the driving forces behind the government's crackdown, diplomats and observers said. Mojtaba is an ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the disputed president, and was credited with winning his father's endorsement for the then Tehran mayor in the 2005 elections, leading to Ahmadinejad's shock second round victory. Mojtaba is an austere figure, generally seen as more hardline than his father and has become a gatekeeper for access to the beit-e-rahbari, the supreme leader's home, and the supreme leader himself. According to some Iran analysts, Khamenei, 70, is manoeuvring to position...