The Assembly of Experts in Iran has elected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the future leader of the Islamic Republic, according to a report citing sources familiar with the decision.
At 56 years old, he is the second son of the ayatollah, the supreme leader who was killed on Saturday in an attack on his compound in Tehran, as reported by the New York Times.
Mojtaba Khamenei was born in 1969 in Mashhad, a significant religious center in Iran, a decade before the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Known for his close ties to the Revolutionary Guards, he first joined the Islamic military body around 1987 after finishing high school. He served during the latter part of Iran's long war with Iraq (1980-1988).
The following year, his father was appointed as the supreme leader, succeeding the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Mojtaba Khamenei continued his studies with the country's most esteemed clerics in Qom and even taught at a religious seminary, establishing connections with the religious leadership and earning their respect, partly due to his father's position.
In 2005, after the conservative candidate Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president, reformists accused Mojtaba Khamenei of collaborating with religious leaders and the Revolutionary Guards to ensure the victory of the relatively unknown candidate.
Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist and one of Ahmadinejad's opponents, criticized Mojtaba Khamenei, accusing the "master's son" of interfering in elections. The then-supreme leader defended his son, stating that "he is himself a master, not the son of a master."
The appointment of the young Khamenei as the future leader of the Islamic Republic could anger Iranians who took to the streets in economic protests that turned into a referendum on the regime earlier this year.
Mojtaba Khamenei's wife, Zahra Adel, his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, and a son were killed alongside his father in Saturday's attacks, the Iranian government stated.
Treated for Impotence in the UK
According to US intelligence services, Mojtaba Khamenei was "treated for impotence" in private hospitals in the UK.
According to a classified document sent by the US State Department to the US Embassy in London in 2008 and later published by WikiLeaks, Mojtaba was pressured by his family to have heirs, as reported by the Daily Mail.
It took four visits to Wellington and Cromwell hospitals in London, including a two-month hospitalization, and eventually, he had a son named "Ali" after the baby's grandfather, the then-supreme leader.
According to US intelligence services, Mojtaba married relatively late, in 2004. This apparently happened "due to an impotence issue."