Iran names Khamenei's son as new supreme leader

By AFP teams in Tehran, Jerusalem, Washington, Dubai and Beirut
Tehran (AFP) Mar 8, 2026
Iran's ruling clerics on Sunday appointed their slain leader's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country's new supreme leader, defying threats against him from the United States and Israel as they pummel the country.

Nine days after US-Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Middle East into war, Shiite clerics convened to choose the third supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

An announcer on state television solemnly read a statement from the 88-member Assembly of Experts next to a picture of the 56-year-old new leader, who bears a striking resemblance to his father.

Mojtaba Khamenei "is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts", the statement said.

It said that the clerical body "did not hesitate for a minute" in choosing a new leader, despite "the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime".

The war came weeks after authorities crushed nationwide protests, killing thousands. The younger Khamenei is considered a fellow hardliner who will pursue his father's rejection of dissent.

US President Donald Trump had previously dismissed the younger Khamenei as a "lightweight", and insisted again Sunday that he should have a say in appointing a new leader.

"If he doesn't get approval from us he's not going to last long," he told ABC News before the announcement was made.

Israel's military had previously warned any successor that "we will not hesitate to target you".

- Oil price spikes -

As Iran retaliates against its its oil-rich Gulf Arab neighbours, which are key bases for US troops, benchmark oil prices soared beyond $100.

Trump has sought to ease pressure on oil prices, a key political issue in the United States, including by encouraging India to buy oil from Russia -- which the United States had for years tried to stop.

He dismissed Sunday's war-related spike in oil prices as a "small price to pay" for removing the threat of Iran's nuclear program.

Few expect major reforms under the younger Khamenei, a trained cleric close to the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic republic's military.

The Guards quickly pledged their support for the new leader, who comes into the role with far less experience than his father, who had been president under the first supreme leader, revolutionary Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomenei.

The Revolutionary Guards Corps said in a statement that it is "ready for complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands" of the younger Khamenei.

Ali Larijani, the head of the Supreme National Security Council who had been seen as a key powerbroker under the slain Khamenei, saluted how the leader was "elected with a legal process" despite the threats of attack.

The Islamic republic had been founded on opposition to dynastic monarchies after the toppling of the pro-Western shah in 1979.

The late shah's son Reza Pahlavi, who lives in exile in the United States and has offered himself as a transitional leader, had warned that any new supreme leader would lack legitimacy.

- Air 'unbreathable' -

Israel struck five oil facilities in and around Tehran overnight early Sunday, killing at least four people and sparking blazes that left the skies filled with acrid smoke.

Tehran's governor told the IRNA news agency that fuel distribution had been "temporarily interrupted" in the capital.

A dark haze hung over the city of 10 million people, blocking out the sun, and the smell of burning fuel lingered in the air.

Authorities warned the fumes could be toxic and urged citizens to stay indoors, but many windows were blown out by the force of the blasts.

"The blaze has been burning for more than 12 hours, the air has become unbreathable. I can't even go out to do the daily shopping," said one 35-year-old from Tehran.

"At first, I supported this war. After Khamenei's death, I celebrated with my friends: we drank wine and we danced.

"But since yesterday... people say there's not even any gasoline left at the gas stations," she said, in a text message to contacts in Europe.

Trump has sent mixed messages on the war aims. He has demanded "unconditional surrender" but also said that the war is all but won, and has also refused to rule out sending US ground troops -- potentially a major escalation.

The US military announced that a service member had died after being wounded in Saudi Arabia, the seventh American combat death in the war.

The Revolutionary Guards warned that they had enough supplies to continue their drone and missile war over the Middle East for up to six months.

- War expands to central Beirut -

Israel struck a hotel in central Beirut on Sunday, the first attack in the heart of the Lebanese capital since the country was dragged into the war, with Shiite movement Hezbollah vowing to avenge Khamenei's death with rocket attacks on Israel.

Israel said it had targeted five commanders of the Revolutionary Guards international Qods Force, the patron of Hezbollah, as they met at a Beirut hotel.

Lebanon's health ministry said that four people died and 10 others injured in the strike in central Beirut.

Lebanon's health minister said at least 394 people had been killed in Israeli air strikes since the start of the war, including 83 children and 42 women.

Saudi Arabia said Sunday that two people were killed and 12 wounded as a projectile landed in Al Kharj province.

Iran also fired new missiles at Israel, with several blasts heard over the commercial hub Tel Aviv and the Magen David Adom emergency services saying six people were wounded in central Israel.

Several people were also injured in Bahrain, the interior ministry said, as Iran keeps targeting the small Gulf kingdom that serves as the base of the US Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Bahrain also reported damage to a water desalination plant, while Kuwait -- where the US embassy was earlier hit and stopped operations -- reported that a new attack hit fuel tanks at its main airport.

Iran's health ministry said Sunday that at least 1,200 civilians had been killed and around 10,000 wounded -- figures AFP could not independently verify.

On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV prayed "that the roar of the bombs may cease, the weapons may fall silent, and a space for dialogue may open".

Mojtaba Khamenei: son and successor to Iran's supreme leader
Paris, France (AFP) Mar 8, 2026 - Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of late Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, has been appointed to succeed his father as the new head of the Islamic republic.

The younger Khamenei was named supreme leader by the top clerical body the Assembly of Experts in a statement published shortly after midnight on Monday in Iran.

Other contenders for the top position had included Alireza Arafi, one of the three members of the interim council running the country, hardliner Mohsen Araki, and even Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the founder of the Islamic republic in 1979.

But ultimately the assembly settled on Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, opting for the kind of hereditary transition that his father had rejected on principle in 2024. The Islamic revolution had put an end to a multi-century royal dynasty headed by the shah.

Born on September 8, 1969, in the holy city of Mashhad in eastern Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei is one of six children of the late supreme leader.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed aged 86 just over a week ago in Tehran during the first wave of US-Israeli air strikes that triggered the war in the Middle East.

Because of his discretion at official ceremonies and in the media, Mojtaba Khamenei's true influence has been the subject of intense speculation for years among the Iranian population as well as in diplomatic circles.

He is the only child of the former supreme leader to hold a public position, despite having no official post.

The cleric, who has a salt-and-pepper beard and the black turban of the "seyyed", descendants of the Prophet Mohammed, has been presented by some as acting behind the scenes to pull strings at the heart of power in Iran.

He is regarded as close to conservatives, notably because of his ties with the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic republic's military.

That relationship dates back to his service in a combat unit at the end of the war between Iraq and Iran that lasted from 1980 to 1988.

- Security force links -

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mojtaba Khamenei in 2019 during President Donald Trump's first term, saying he represented the supreme leader "despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father".

Ali Khamenei had "delegated a part of his leadership responsibilities" to his son, "who worked closely" with Iranian security forces "to advance his father's destabilising regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives", the Treasury said.

Opponents have notably accused him of playing a role in the violent crackdown that followed the re-election of ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, which triggered a vast protest movement.

According to an investigation by the Bloomberg news organisation, which cited anonymous sources and Western intelligence agency reports, Mojtaba Khamenei has amassed wealth estimated at more than $100 million.

Money from oil sales had been channelled into investments in luxury British real estate, hotels in Europe and property in Dubai through shell companies in tax havens, according to the investigation.

On the religious front, Mojtaba Khamenei studied theology in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught.

He attained the rank of Hujjat al-Islam, a title given to mid-ranking clerics, below that of Ayatollah held by his father and by revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini.

His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, also died in the US-Israeli strikes that killed the supreme leader, according to Iranian authorities.

Israel has issued a stark warning to the new supreme leader and whoever selected him, saying "the hand of the State of Israel will continue to follow any successor and anyone who seeks to appoint a successor".

The Assembly of Experts has 88 members who are elected every eight years.

It has only overseen one leadership transition process to date, when Khamenei was selected in 1989 following the death of Khomeini.