The clerical body tasked with selecting the successor of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has reached a decision, Tehran announced on Sunday. The name of the successor is yet to be revealed, yet all hints suggesting Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, the late leader’s son.
Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, another member of the Assembly of Experts, said in a video released by Nournews on Sunday that a candidate had been picked based on Khamenei’s advice that the top leader should “be hated by the enemy”.
“The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined,” Heydari, a member of the selection body tasked to appoint Khamenei’s successor, said.
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“Even the Great Satan (the US) has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said, apparently referring to Donald Trump saying that Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, the late supreme leader’s son, was an “unacceptable” choice for the US.
Earlier this week, Iran International citing sources said Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba was elected as the next Supreme Leader amid pressure from the Revolutionary Guards.
Mojtaba Khamenei had survived the US and Israeli airstrikes on February 28, which killed his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, Reuters reported citing two Iranian sources.
Israel warns to pursue Khamenei’s successor
Even before a decision on the successor was announced, the Israeli military warned it would continue pursuing every successor of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in US and Israeli strikes on Iran.
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While referring to the clerical body charged with Khamenei’s successor, the military warned it would target every person who seeks to appoint a successor for Khamenei.
Earlier in the day, Iran’s Mehr news agency, while quoting Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammad-Mahdi Mirbagheri, said “some obstacles” still remained to be resolved regarding the selection process.
A 88-member assembly of exports choose the country’s next supreme leader. In over the last five decades, Iran has had two Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 37 years, was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran on February 28, on the first day of the conflict between the two sides which has now widened into a bigger conflict in the region.
