Iran's Assembly of Experts Appoints Mojtaba Khamenei as New Supreme Leader
The decision was announced by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) – Iran’s clerical establishment on Sunday appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new Supreme Leader following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in recent U.S.-Israeli strikes.
The decision was announced by Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for selecting the Supreme Leader. In a statement, the assembly said Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, had been chosen by a decisive vote and was formally introduced as “the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
The appointment comes nine days after strikes attributed to the United States and Israel killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an event that has intensified tensions and contributed to a broader regional conflict.
According to the statement, the Assembly of Experts moved quickly to fill the leadership vacuum, saying it “did not hesitate for a minute” in selecting a successor despite what it described as “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime.”
Prior to the announcement, U.S. President Donald Trump had dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as a “lightweight” and suggested Washington should have influence over the selection of Iran’s next leader.
Iranian officials rejected the suggestion of foreign involvement in the process. Speaking on NBC’s Meet the Press, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the decision regarding the country’s leadership was solely an internal matter.
“We will allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs,” Araghchi said, while also calling on Trump to apologize to people in the region for initiating the conflict.
Mojtaba Khamenei is believed to have strong ties with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the powerful military and ideological force within Iran.