Irans neuer oberster Führer ist Mojtaba Khamenei

Early on Monday morning, amid the pounding of U.S. and Israeli bombs, Tehran defiantly announced, on state-controlled television, that the Assembly of Experts had selected Mojtaba Khamenei—the son of the previous Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei—to succeed his father, who was killed in a targeted air strike on the first day of the war. Mojtaba, as he is commonly referred to, is a 56-year-old cleric who was his father’s closest adviser. He had never held a government title or elected position before his new role. Among Iran experts, he was not considered an important scholar or thinker, although he was educated in the élite seminaries of Qom, the center of theological learning, and taught religious classes. But he has long cultivated a base of support in the military, notably among the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as his father had, too.

Mojtaba’s appointment “is a final act of resistance by the late Khamenei from his grave,” an Iran expert told Robin Wright. “It also sends a strong message to Trump that his bombings and threats are not delivering the regime change he seemingly wants.” Before the war, in December and January, nationwide protests had pushed the Islamic Republic toward a political cliff. The regime ruthlessly cracked down on those protests, killing thousands and detaining tens of thousands who were shouting “Death to the dictator.” This transition will not be the kind of change that the majority of Iranians had hoped for, or expected, especially after U.S. military intervention. Read more: [https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-the-selection-of-irans-new-leader-might-mean-for-the-war](https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/what-the-selection-of-irans-new-leader-might-mean-for-the-war)

well we’ll just have to do something about that, won’t we