Iran's Assembly of Experts has reportedly selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the new Supreme Leader of Iran following major political developments. According to international media reports, Mojtaba Khamenei has long been considered an influential figure behind the scenes in Iranian politics.
Unlike his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has mostly kept a low public profile. He has rarely appeared in public, never held an official government office, and has not given many public speeches or interviews. Despite this, many political analysts believe he has played a powerful role inside Iran's leadership system.
Diplomatic sources and reports have described him as an important figure with strong connections to key institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). His possible rise to leadership comes during a time of increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, making this development a major topic in global politics and international news.
In this video, we cover the latest updates on Iran's leadership transition, the background of Mojtaba Khamenei, and what this could mean for Iran, the United States, Israel, and the wider Middle East region.
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Unlike his father, Mojtaba Khamenei has mostly kept a low public profile. He has rarely appeared in public, never held an official government office, and has not given many public speeches or interviews. Despite this, many political analysts believe he has played a powerful role inside Iran's leadership system.
Diplomatic sources and reports have described him as an important figure with strong connections to key institutions such as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). His possible rise to leadership comes during a time of increasing geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, making this development a major topic in global politics and international news.
In this video, we cover the latest updates on Iran's leadership transition, the background of Mojtaba Khamenei, and what this could mean for Iran, the United States, Israel, and the wider Middle East region.
Stay updated with the latest breaking news, world news, international politics, Middle East conflict updates, and global developments.
Iran news,
Mojtaba Khamenei,
Iran supreme leader,
Ali Khamenei,
Iran politics,
Iran leadership change,
Tehran news,
Middle East news,
global politics,
world news today,
breaking news 2026,
USA Iran relations,
Israel Iran tensions,
IRGC Iran,
international news update.
#IranNews
#BreakingNews
#WorldNews
#MiddleEastNews
#IranPolitics
#GlobalNews
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NewsTranscript
00:00You're with BBC News.
00:01In the breaking news this hour, Iran's assembly of experts has chosen Mushtaba Khamenei to
00:07succeed his father as the country's supreme leader.
00:10Announcing its decision, the assembly, which is made up entirely of clerics, called on
00:15the Iranian people to remain united and pledge allegiance to the new leader.
00:20Mushtaba Khamenei is seen as a protégé of the hardline Revolutionary Guards.
00:25His father, Ali Khamenei, was killed on the first day of the war launched by the United
00:31States and Israel.
00:33President Trump has warned the new leader wouldn't last long if Tehran didn't get his
00:39approval first.
00:41So that breaking news that indeed it is the second son of the late cleric that will be
00:47taking his place, Khamenei's successor, his son, Mushtaba.
00:53Let's talk to the international affairs analyst, Aman Mahmoudian, research fellow at the Global
00:58and National Security Institute.
01:00Thank you very much for your quick reaction.
01:02Arguably, for Iranians, there will be little difference in terms of their day-to-day life,
01:08given that this man is a hardliner, very much keeping in step with his late father.
01:15Well, first of all, thank you very much for inviting Mark Garcia.
01:18The Iranian public should be obviously looking at these events and his selection as the new
01:24supreme law leader with concern.
01:27As you mentioned, you know, in your discussion in your previous days, it's kind of defeat the
01:33purpose of the revolution.
01:34The revolution after 1979, when it took place, was supposed to end the inheriting powers or
01:40dynasties.
01:42Now we have the second son of Ayatollah Khamenei being selected as his successor, which is basically
01:48a de facto political dynasty.
01:51Now, the other thing is that the characterization and the record of the Mushtaba Khamenei.
01:55Mushtaba Khamenei is not only a hardliner and a principalist with the close ties with the
02:00paramilitary bastige and IRGC, who played a key role in the, you know, bloodless operation
02:06of the protests in the January.
02:08He also played a very clear and instrumental role in 2008 and 2009 to engineer the result
02:16of the election, which many people at the time assumed that they voted for the previous
02:23prime minister, Mirosem Musabi, as the new president.
02:26The result was different.
02:27It led to the massive national-wide protest that continued for two years, known as the
02:32Green Movement.
02:33Mushtaba Khamenei was accused as the person who was behind the engineering election by both
02:39of the candidates.
02:40He played a key role in coordinating the efforts among the security apartheids, IRGC, and other
02:47key elements in the regime to suppress the key movement.
02:49So there is also a background from him, a background that many people in Iran funded a stop-burn,
02:57quite a hardliner and, to be frank, very restrict that he wouldn't tolerate even voices that are
03:05opposing him or critics of him from the previous key leaders and elements inside the Islamic Republic,
03:11including Prime Minister Mirosem Musabi, the presidential committee candidate at the time,
03:17who was one of the very early Prime Ministers of the Islamic Republic in early years.
03:23So it's interesting that you say that this kind of succession, the creation, potentially,
03:31of a dynasty within Iran goes totally against the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the overthrow of the
03:39Shah, the fact that the whole point of this was to break that up. I just wonder, we don't know
03:46much
03:46about how he's not been politically active in the more traditional sense of having roles.
03:51So what does this say about what he was doing behind the scenes, not least when you touch
03:56upon the various different elections and the concerns that differing candidates had during
04:02different elections throughout Iran's most recent history?
04:06I think the fact that he wasn't really exposed politically was a purpose and intentional move.
04:13I think both him, his father and the key backers, they at some point made the decision,
04:19exposure or him being in public eyes, might bring critics, might expose his weakness, might not be in
04:28his favor. So they tried to shield him. However, the fact that he played a key role behind the scenes
04:34during the election, and he is known to many people inside the Iran, many of those, many of them,
04:39especially many who deal with the regime as a gatekeeper, the previous gatekeeper to his father's
04:45office. It was famous that if you wanted to connect Ayatollah Khamenei, the previous Supreme Leader,
04:50Mushtaba is the one who has the veto card and can, you know, restrict you from that meeting or
04:55having access to him. So that's a part of that, why he was hidden, why he was in a behind
05:01the scene.
05:02What he has been doing from what we know, what been, you know, leaked and exposed so far,
05:07he has been in a very close ties with IRGC, Iranian intelligence service, and some specific
05:14Iranian political elites. One of those political elites that he had established an alliance with
05:19was Mohamed Baghera Qalibov. Mohamed Qalibov is a previous IRGC commander. He is today the spokesperson
05:27of Iran's parliament, and it's been told that after the removal of Ayatollah Khamenei and alongside
05:33other high-ranked senior commanders, he's the person who plays a key role in Iran's National
05:40Defense Council. So he is the man who plays a key role in planning Iran's military doctrine right now in
05:46this war time. And I think that alliances, having a person as Qalibov and his backing also smoothed his
05:53way to the supreme leadership and helped him to be, you know, to raise to the power now.
05:59Dr. Aman, we have my colleague from BBC Persian with us who has been very, very speedy in getting
06:05reaction to this. Just in terms of when it comes to his popularity in Iran, obviously you were saying
06:14that we don't know much about him in terms of his political work, but we know that you've been
06:21monitoring him very closely and so has the US. They've sanctioned him. They did sanction him, but
06:27everything is based on the reports they had from here and there. The important point here is that
06:35uh, the Islamic Republic going from its name, it's, it's a religious, it's a religious organization.
06:42And the big question now is that, um, what, what is his way in terms of, in terms of, uh,
06:51the religion? Like, uh, at the, at the moment, um, he's, he, he was, he was never called an Ayatollah.
06:59Maybe, maybe, maybe we can, we can see him being called an Ayatollah, uh, from this night onwards.
07:06And, um, also in terms of, in terms of publications or, um, this, this is the jurisprudent.
07:16They have to have a say on many different matters, uh, in life. They, they need to have publications.
07:24They need to have papers, uh, saying, what is their view about, uh, certain matters, uh, in life
07:31from a religious point, point of view, their understanding of the holy book and, and the way
07:36of the imams in the, in the Shiite religion. And we, we haven't, we haven't heard anything from him
07:41before. So, um, there's the, uh, as our guest was saying, there's, uh, one side is a, is a political
07:49side.
07:49Uh, one is the, uh, um, uh, the money matters, as, as you mentioned, the empire that we've heard
07:57that he's built, uh, there are reports, uh, on different media about, uh, uh, about him. Uh,
08:04but then again, the assembly of experts, uh, is made up from clerics. And, um, one would ask,
08:14what was, what was your reasoning to choose such a person from a religious point of view?
08:20That is really interesting. And it's something that we're going to pick up with Dr. Aman, but I
08:25just want to say that we're seeing people out on the streets across Iran. Can I just jump on that?
08:33Um, uh, there are reports, there are reports from, uh, my colleagues at BBC Persian, uh, that as soon as
08:41some of, uh, some of these speakers on the streets, they announced the name of the new supreme leader.
08:46Uh, there were already protests, uh, protesters protesting to this news and, and, uh, uh,
08:52saying slogans against Mushtab al-Khamene. Wow. That is, that is really very, very quick,
08:59isn't it? Um, to get so many people on the street. It's, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's the month of
09:04Ramazan
09:04and a lot of people are fasting and the, some people would, would sleep or rest during the daytime.
09:10And a lot of people are more active during the nighttime. So it's not an ordinary night in Iran.
09:15It's a lot of people are, uh, uh, I mean, like it's past their bedtime in, on a normal night,
09:21but tonight, like a lot of people are on the streets, the supporters of the, uh, Islamic Republic
09:26are on the streets. Uh, they were, they were trying to, uh, put together all these, uh, um, uh,
09:34demonstrations against, against America and Israel, uh, on the, on, on the streets of different cities
09:40in Iran. And that's when they announced, uh, the news of the new supreme leader. Uh, obviously the,
09:47the supporters of the, uh, Iranian government, uh, are welcoming the news. They, they see it as
09:53another Khamenei taking over, uh, uh, uh, basically they are defying, uh, the slogan of the protesters
10:02who were saying death to Khamenei. So you have another Khamenei in charge now, and now you have
10:08the protesters hearing the news and they are trying to make themselves heard as well.
10:13An extraordinary night, not a normal night in any way whatsoever, as Iran comes to terms with
10:20the naming of the successor of the late Ayatollah. Dr. Aman, we were hearing there from my colleague
10:30Puriya from BBC Persian talk about that. We don't know very much about his religious thoughts,
10:37his thinking. There isn't that much written, which is fascinating because isn't that the whole point
10:45of choosing a supreme leader that you've got all of that, that you understand where he is coming from
10:52in terms of spirituality, in terms of his leadership. And yet here we don't, it's the successor,
11:00a father dies, a son succeeds. This is really a good question. And I, to be honest,
11:06is a dilemma that Iranian people and I think international community is facing that.
11:10What does he believe? Who is he? We know he had ties with the hardliner. We know, as you know,
11:17your esteemed colleague and my friend Puriya mentioned that he had problems. He has been
11:24criticized by the body of the Iranian population, not today, even during the Green Movement.
11:28I remember very well when people on the streets were chanting,
11:31Mushtawa, you will die, but you will not see the supreme leadership.
11:36Mushtawa, be miri, wa rahbari, wa naviri, the direct translation, the quote from Farsi,
11:40which turned out to not be, which, you know, turned out to not be true. He's now the supreme leader.
11:45But what does he believe? It's very hard. We do know that the, he believes that the government
11:51must have a totalitarian control over the political decision making of the Iran. He does
11:59believe that the office of supreme leader is the highest rank and highest level of power in Iran.
12:05However, there are some elements in Iran who are trying to sell him out as the, as the new way
12:12of
12:13the, a new era. For instance, just, when I just was checking my phone and it seems that Muhammad
12:18Baghar al-Ghaliwaf, the spokesperson of parliament, right now, about two minutes ago,
12:22he made an announcement. And in that announcement he referred to the Mushtawa Khamenei's selection as
12:29the new supreme leader, as the beginning of the new era. He called himself a no-gara, which means a
12:35person who is, you know, in favor of change and he wants to bring a new spirit to the environment.
12:43But if it, if it is true or not, I think time would tell. But definitely there will be an
12:49effort and
12:50campaign by the Islamic Republic to sell him as an, as a new supreme leader to Iranian public and the
12:58world, not necessarily as a hard line, but as a person who is bringing solutions, who's going to
13:04bring remedy and policies that change the current situation for the Iranian people, the hardship and
13:10the difficulty that they are facing in home and from the war. So, but if he is the one that
13:15can carries
13:16out or he really believes in that, this is a different question that, you know, I think in the coming
13:21hours or coming days, we will find a little bit better and more clear response about it.
13:26Well, as we watch the live images from Iran itself, there are thousands of people out on the streets.
13:33Our understanding is some in support, some not so much. Obviously, a hugely
13:40controversial figure in the sense that he will continue with his ultra conservative
13:46ways and thoughts of his late father. But we also know that he is very close to the
13:53Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps. And they have already said that they are ready to follow the new
13:59supreme leader, Mushtaba. That is their statement. Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps saying they are ready to
14:06follow the new supreme leader, Mushtaba. We're also hearing from Iran's parliament, the speaker saying
14:13that they're welcoming the choice of Mushtaba as the supreme leader, adding that following him is a
14:19religious and a national duty. So very much that diktat from the top that this is what they expect
14:32Iranians to do. This is they have to fall in line now behind the new leader, Purya Jaffare from BBC
14:41Persian. I cannot confirm that he has become an Ayatollah. I can read it from the Taslim News Agency,
14:47which is very close to the Revolutionary Guard. Ayatollah Sayyid Mushtaba Khamenei named new leader of
14:54Islamic revolution. It's interesting. It doesn't have the word Iran in it.
14:59He has become an Ayatollah. So he has taken that step to become an Ayatollah from
15:08a lower rank from a religious point of view. And it seems like that at this moment, the message is
15:16clear. It's not making any amends with the protesters, not backing off by any means.
15:23And the message is also clear for the United States and Israel that they're going to carry
15:30on what they were doing in the last eight, nine days. And it seems like this will continue for,
15:41we don't know for how long, but the policies are not going to change. However, having said that,
15:47in the past, there were mentions in the media by people who were close to IRGC and
15:54and Mushtaba Khamenei saying that maybe he can take a role of an Iranian MBS, a Muhammad bin Salman,
16:04making changes in Iran. But at this moment in time, in the middle of the war,
16:10I don't think how this is going to unfold.
16:12That is really, that's a really interesting comparison. But you're talking about the,
16:18that he has now been instated as an Ayatollah. We know that the first Ayatollah Khomeini,
16:26he was, just help us to understand, because he was an Ayatollah.
16:29Yes.
16:30His successor, the late Khomeini, wasn't, but also then was elevated. And now this for his son.
16:38So why is this significant?
16:39It is significant because Ayatollah Khomeini, who was, who was the founder of the Islamic Republic,
16:45he was Ayatollah many, many years. Like he, he was having all these lectures in, in different clerical
16:53institutions inside Iran and outside Iran. Many clerics, they, they, they went to these sessions
17:01to learn from him from a religious perspective. And he was, he was the one who came up with the
17:07idea
17:08of having a supreme leader, the, the rule of the jurisprudence, as they say, from when you, when you talk
17:18about the Shia religion. And that's how the Islamic Republic, like was, was formed in the first place.
17:26But as you mentioned, when, when Khomeini died, and it was only a couple of nights after he died,
17:34that the assembly experts, they had that, uh, very interesting meeting at the time, very different
17:40circumstances. Uh, and, uh, he, he was helped by, uh, Mr. Rafsanjani, who was a very, uh, uh, important
17:50and powerful, uh, political character in Iran at the time. Uh, and he, he was, he was known as the
17:57kingmaker who brought Ayatollah Khamenei, uh, to, uh, to, to power. And it was on that night that
18:04everybody from Iranian radio heard for the first time, the term Ayatollah Khamenei. And the same
18:11thing is happening again tonight for his son. Incredible, isn't it? I mean, Puriya, we're going
18:19to talk at length throughout the evening following this. Uh, and we're also joined by our guest,
18:27Dr. Aman Mahmoudian, who's a research fellow at the Global and National Security Institute. But I
18:33think for people just, uh, tuning in and coming to, uh, joining us here on BBC news, it's just worth
18:40reminding everybody that the successor to the late Ayatollah Khamenei has been named and it is
18:51his second son, Mushtaba Khamenei, named as Iran's new supreme leader, the most politically active of
19:00the late, uh, Tala's children. But like we've been hearing behind the scenes, the power behind the
19:09robes, the gatekeeper to his late father.
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