Ayatollah Khamenei’s son is frontrunner to succeed dad as Iran’s new supreme leader: report
The son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the frontrunner to replace him as supreme leader, according to reports.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is currently favored to take control of Iran by the country’s Assembly of Experts, a powerful body of clerics that makes the decision, the New York Times reported while citing sources close to the deliberations.
Other outlets – including Israeli media and Iranian opposition channels – were reporting early Tuesday that Mojtaba had already been selected, though Iranian state media has not confirmed anything.
Mojtaba Khamenei (center), son of Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was reportedly selected to replace him as supreme leader.picture alliance via Getty Images
The report was widely being picked up by Israeli media but had not been confirmed by Iranian state mouthpieces.
Mojtaba was at first believed to have been among the 40 top Iranian aides killed during the Saturday strike that took out Iran’s highest-ranking cleric.
Mojtaba was at first believed to have been among the 40 top Iranian aides killed during the Saturday strike that took out Tehran’s highest-ranking cleric, his despotic 86-year-old father who ruled over Iran with an iron grip for decades.
But reports of his name being floated within leadership succession discussions indicate he is alive and well – and could be well on the way to furthering his father’s cause of severely anti-western sentiments.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei gives his Friday prayer sermon at Tehran University in this video grab June 19, 2009.REUTERS
Motjaba — the ayatollah’s second-oldest son — has been known for his staunch adherence to his father’s hardline conservatism and has close ties to Iran’s notoriously brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps military body, according to CNN.
He had no official role in his father’s regime but was still sanctioned by the US in 2019.
If it’s true Mojtaba is now leading Iran or about to, that appointment was unexpected.
May 31, 2019 file photo shows, Son of Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, attends a demonstration to mark Jerusalem day in Tehran.NurPhoto via Getty Images
The country’s officials have traditionally looked down on family succession in its leadership – especially since the current regime seized power by toppling a kinship-fueled monarchy in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“If he is elected, it suggests it is a much more hard-line Revolutionary Guard side of the regime that is now in charge,” Johns Hopkins University expert on Iran, Vali Nasr, told the Times.
Other experts said Mojtaba is the “wisest pick” because of how close he is with the highest levels of Iran’s security and military apparatus through the Revolutionary Guard.
If it’s true Mojtaba is now leading Iran or about to, that appointment was unexpected.NurPhoto via Getty Images
Whoever is picked would also need to be cleared by the nation’s Guardian Council, which vets laws and leaders to make sure they are in good standing with strict Islamic codes.
Those expectations made Mojtaba an unlikely choice, as the supreme leader serves as Iran’s religious figurehead as well as the leader of the government.
Mojtaba has no serious religious credentials, which under normal circumstances put him in the crosshairs of a Guardian Council veto, according to the Wall Street Journal.
His close association with his father – whose hardline policies and violent crackdown on Iranian protesters brought about the country’s current predicament – were also viewed as a hindrance to his ascension to power.
Iran has currently been in the hands of a three-man council run by two of Ali Khamenei’s top henchmen who survived the strike.REUTERS
“A portion of the public will react negatively and forcefully to this decision, and it will have a backlash,” analyst Rahmati said.
Still, others characterize Mojtaba as a possibly “extremely progressive” pick who could “move to sideline the hard-liners.”
“See his appointment as a shedding of skin,” said Abdolreza Davari, an Iranian politician who is close to Mojtaba, according to the Times.
President Donald J. Trump oversees Operation Epic Fury at Mar-a-Lago, Palm Beach, FL, March 1, 2026.White House
How much real power Mojtaba would actually have either way remains unclear.
Ali Khamenei ruled Iran for 37 years, during which time he was able to consolidate a sprawling cult and cadre of cronies insulating him from dissent.
Experts have speculated that his successor is unlikely to be able to wield as much power himself and will instead serve as a figurehead.
“We can almost certainly say that leadership will not be concentrated in one person,” Ali Khamenei biographer Mehdi Khalaji told the Journal.
“The next supreme leader will be mostly ceremonial.”
A billionaire father returned home early and found his paralyzed twins on the floor—laughing. What their caregiver did next challenged everything he believed
A billionaire father had built a strict medical routine to protect his paralyzed twins—until the day he came home early and found them lying on the floor with their caregiver, unaware that a simple movement would challenge everything he had ever been told.
Graham Holloway hadn’t planned to return until sunset. For nearly two years, his life had followed the same cold, unchanging pattern. He left home before his sons were fully awake, spent long hours in a glass tower in downtown Raleigh, and returned at night to a strangely quiet mansion. His staff ensured everything was perfect. His schedule was set down to the minute. Every room looked flawless.
And yet, nothing in that house felt alive.
On Thursday, a meeting with investors ended earlier than expected. A contract delay pushed discussions to the following week. Graham could have stayed in the city, reviewing numbers, but a deeper exhaustion than usual made him stop pretending. He dismissed his driver at the entrance of his estate in Wake Forest, North Carolina, and chose to walk in alone through a side door.
It reminded him of how his late wife used to surprise him—hearing the door open, laughing somewhere in the hallway, telling him dinner would be ready soon. Sometimes their twins would rush to him before he could even set down his briefcase.
Those memories had become dangerous.
Entering the quiet house, Graham loosened his tie, expecting the usual silence.
But then he heard something so unexpected that he froze.
Children laughing.
Not from a TV. Not from a tablet. Real laughter—clear, light, alive.
For a moment, he thought his mind was playing tricks on him.
Then he followed the sound.
What he saw took his breath away.
The laughter led him down the east hallway to the rehabilitation room he had set up after the accident. He pushed the door open so abruptly his shoulder hit the frame.
Both wheelchairs were empty.
His heart began pounding painfully.
On the padded floor lay his sons, Declan and Wesley Mercer, eight years old. Wesley still had a faint mark above his eyebrow—a reminder of the fall that had changed everything.
They were on their backs, knees bent, bare feet pressing against foam pads and small wooden blocks.
Standing beside them was Naomi Bell, the caregiver he had hired three months earlier.
She wasn’t panicked or rushed.
She was calm.
One hand supported Declan’s hips, while the other rested gently on Wesley’s knee. Her movements were slow, steady—almost like music.
In a soft voice, she hummed a quiet tune about rivers, light, and progress inch by inch.
The boys were not afraid.
They were smiling.
Graham couldn’t move.
For two years, every specialist had told him the same thing: no improvement, no recovery, no hope beyond maintenance. He had built his entire world around that certainty—structured routines, controlled environments, zero risks.
And now… his sons were on the floor.
“Stop.” His voice came out sharper than he intended.
Naomi looked up, calm but alert. “Mr. Holloway, I can explain—”
“They’re not supposed to be out of their chairs,” he cut in, stepping closer, his pulse racing. “What are you doing?”
Declan turned his head first. “Dad?”
Wesley grinned. “We’re playing.”
Playing.
The word hit him harder than anything else.
Naomi slowly removed her hands, making sure the boys were stable before standing. “They’re safe,” she said gently. “I would never put them in danger.”
Graham’s eyes scanned their bodies, expecting panic, pain—anything. But there was none. Just flushed cheeks… and that laughter still lingering in the air.
“They moved,” Naomi continued carefully. “Not much—but enough.”
“That’s not possible,” Graham said immediately. “We’ve had the best doctors—”
“And they taught you to protect them,” she said softly. “But not to test them.”
Silence filled the room.
Naomi crouched again, this time slower, more deliberate. “Wesley, can you show your dad what you just did?”
Wesley hesitated, then nodded. With visible effort, he pressed his heel into the foam and shifted—just slightly—but enough.
Graham’s breath caught.
It was small. Almost nothing.
But it wasn’t nothing.
Declan followed, a tiny movement of his leg, his face tightening with concentration—then breaking into a proud smile.
“See?” he whispered.
Something inside Graham cracked.
All this time… had he been holding them back?
Naomi stood again. “They don’t need less care,” she said. “They need a different kind.”
Graham looked at his sons—really looked at them—not as fragile patients, but as children.
Children who were trying.
For the first time in years, he didn’t know what the right answer was.
