Iran Names Khamenei’s Son as New Supreme Leader

Iran’s ruling clerics on Sunday appointed the slain leader’s son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader, defying threats from the United States and Israel to oppose him.

Nine days after US-Israeli strikes killed the elder Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Middle East into war, the clerical government’s Assembly of Experts convened to choose their next leader.

Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, “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 clerical body said in a statement.

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”.

US President Donald Trump has previously dismissed the younger Khamenei as a “lightweight” and insisted again on Sunday that he should have a say in the new leader’s appointment.

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