Leadership Transition in Iran Amid Escalating Conflict : Son of Iran's late supreme leader possiblecandidate t

PTI, March 4, 2026, Dubai : Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran's late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has long been considered a contender to the post of the country's next paramount ruler — even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war last week and despite the fact he has never been elected or appointed to a government position.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when the Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader's offices killed his 86-year-old father. Also killed were the younger Khamenei's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country's theocracy. Khamenei is believed to still be alive and has likely gone into hiding as American and Israeli airstrikes continue to pound Iran, though state-run Iranian media have not reported on his whereabouts.

Mojtaba's name continues to circulate as a possible candidate to replace his father, something that had been criticised in the past as potentially creating a theocratic version of Iran's former hereditary monarchy.

But now, with his father and wife considered by hard-liners as martyrs in the war against America and Israel, Khamenei's stock likely has risen with the ageing clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts who will select the country's next supreme leader. Whoever becomes the leader will gain control of an Iranian military now at war and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon — should he choose to decree it.

Khamenei had occupied a similar role to that of Ahmad Khomeini, a son of Iran's first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini — "a combination of aide-de-camp, confidant, gatekeeper and power broker," according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based pressure group.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Israel Katz on Wednesday threatened that any leader appointed by the Iranian regime, who would continue to lead with plans to destroy Israel, will be a target for elimination by the Jewish state.

Katz's comments came on a day Iran is set to choose a Supreme Leader, the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The joint US-Israel strikes killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Saturday, prompting the Islamic nation to vow revenge on Sunday.

"Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people — will be an unequivocal target for elimination," Katz said in a post on X.

"It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides," the Israeli defence minister stressed.