Where is Mojtaba Khamenei? Iranian state television is celebrating him, but the new supreme leader has yet to appear publicly
Mojtaba Khamenei, named Iran's new supreme leader after his father was killed in the US-Israeli attack on Iran, has not been seen in public since the start of the Middle East war. State television continues to air praise for the new leader, but Ali Khamenei's son has so far issued no public message, and there are no recent images of him.
Iranian state media announced on March 8 that the clerical forum the Assembly of Experts of Iran had appointed 56-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's new supreme leader.
The BBC has been monitoring Iranian state television since the announcement on Sunday night and found that the mood on state television has been very celebratory since his election, although the new supreme leader has made no public sign.
State television has reported in recent days that Mojtaba Khamenei is a “veteran of the Ramadan war,” as Iranian media call the conflict, but did not provide further details about any injuries he sustained during the war.
Besides his father, Mojtaba Khamenei's mother and wife were also killed in the February 28 US-Israel strike in Tehran.
Reuters reported, citing sources, that Mojtaba Khamenei was not in Tehran at the time of the attack and survived, but his exact whereabouts were not made public.
What Trump says about Mojtaba
US President Donald Trump told the New York Post on Monday that he was “not happy” with the election of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's supreme leader.
Before he was elected, Israel had threatened that any Iranian supreme leader chosen to succeed the dead Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would be “a target for elimination.”
Iranians inside the country who oppose the system have told the BBC they expect Mojtaba to continue his father's hardline policies.
Who is Mojtaba Khamenei?
Mojtaba Khamenei is one of the six children of the former ayatollah, who was killed on February 28 at the age of 86 after more than three decades in power.
Although he was long considered one of the favorites to succeed him, Mojtaba kept a low profile, being seen as exerting influence behind the scenes.
In 2019, the United States imposed sanctions on Mojtaba Khamenei, stating that although he did not hold an official position, he effectively “represented” the Supreme Leader.
He is considered close to conservatives, particularly because of his ties to the Revolutionary Guards, the Islamic Republic's ideological army. This relationship dates back to his enlistment in a combat unit at the end of the long Iraq-Iran war (1980-1988).
Both his father and his predecessor, the founder of the Islamic Republic, the unrelated Ruhollah Khomeini, criticized hereditary succession in the context of the Pahlavi monarchy, which was overthrown during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
