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“Think of Mojtaba Khamenei as his father on steroids.”
That’s how Kasra Arabi, director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Research at the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, described Iran’s new supreme leader on Fox News Digital following reports that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son has been chosen to lead the Islamic republic.
“Mojtaba was already serving as a ‘mini supreme leader’ in Bayt-e Rahbari – the main center of power in his father’s office and regime,” Arabi said.
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File photo shows Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, taking part in a demonstration marking Jerusalem Day in Tehran. (Morteza Nicoubzal/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
“His father created the extensive apparatus of the Bayt as a hidden power structure to ensure continuity and through the appointment of Mojtaba, that is what we will get,” Arabi said.
President Donald Trump also reacted to the rise of Mojtaba Khamenei. In an interview with the New York Post, Trump said he was “not happy” with the younger Khamenei replacing his father as leader of Iran’s religious system, but declined to elaborate on how the United States might respond. Asked about his plans for a new supreme leader, Trump said, “Won’t tell you.” “Won’t tell you. I’m not happy with that.”
An Iranian source with knowledge of the leadership change told Fox News Digital that there was earlier speculation that Mojtaba might pursue reforms, but this now seems unlikely given the circumstances surrounding his appointment.
“Earlier there were whispers that if Mojtaba becomes leader, he could bring reforms that would open up the domestic political arena and bring a more interactive approach to foreign policy,” the source said.
“However, this possibility now seems very weak.”
According to the source, Mojtaba was chosen “amidst the disputes, controversies and pressure from the IRGC”, meaning that “his appointment is due to their support and therefore he cannot act against their wishes.”
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Military members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in western Tehran, Iran (Morteza Nicoubzal/Nurfoto via Getty Images)
Built within Iran’s security state
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, has spent decades building influence inside the power structures surrounding Iran’s supreme leader.
Born in Mashhad in 1969, he pursued clerical studies in Tehran, Iran, after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that brought his father to fame. However, analysts say that over time his influence grew less through traditional clerical authority and more through Iran’s security institutions.
In 2019, the United States sanctioned Mojtaba under Executive Order 13867. The US Treasury Department said he was “representing the supreme leader in an official capacity despite never having been elected or appointed to government office other than in his work in his father’s office.”
Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, said Mojtaba’s background reflects broader changes within the Islamic Republic.
People hold placards with pictures of Iran’s new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei and late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a rally in support of Mojtaba Khamenei amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran in Tehran, Iran on March 9, 2026. (Majid Asgharipour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via Reuters)
“Despite wearing a turban, Mojtaba is a product of the regime’s deep state of national security,” Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. “Hopefully he will work with and through the IRGC to maintain his hold on power.”
Arabi said Mojtaba has spent years consolidating influence behind the scenes.
“His past tells us that he enjoys micromanaging every aspect of power to satisfy his thirst for power,” Arabi said, describing how Mojtaba allegedly moved IRGC command centers to his office during protests, engineered election results and installed loyalists in state institutions.
Since 2019, Mojtaba has also been implementing what he described as his father’s effort to “cleanse” the regime by promoting ideological loyalists in the political system, Arabi said.
Arabi said, “Mojtaba is a deeply anti-Semitic, anti-American and anti-Western thinker.” “He has been personally involved in repression in Iran and terrorist plots abroad.”
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Kashmiri Shia Muslims march in a protest rally on the fourth day of mourning in Magham, Jammu and Kashmir on March 4, 2026 carrying pictures of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Faisal Khan/Anadolu/Getty Images)
Analysts see a tough road ahead
Analysts say Mojtaba’s rise could further strengthen the role of Iran’s security institutions.
Ben Taleblu said, “The rise of the young Khamenei accelerates a trend seen for years in Iranian politics and national security.” “From one Khamenei to another, the situation in Iran can be expected to go from bad to worse if this regime survives.”
He added, “And like the elder Khamenei, corruption runs in the family.”
Ben Taleblu warned that the regime could also escalate tensions externally as a survival strategy.
“The regime knows it is weak, but it believes it can exact a price to survive and escalate the crisis,” he said.
For opposition groups inside Iran, the leadership change signals continuity rather than reform.
Khaled Azizi, a spokesman for the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran, said, “He is Khamenei’s son and he has the same ideology and the same strategy and he tries to continue the same policy.”
“It’s very difficult to say yet what will be done with them and will they have a different policy? I don’t expect that.”
The Iranian source who spoke to Fox News Digital said future engagement with the United States and the West is theoretically possible, but unlikely.
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On March 1, 2026 in Sana’a, Yemen. Pro-Iran protesters carried billboards depicting Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei, flags of Yemen and Iran, waved weapons and chanted slogans at a rally held to condemn US-Israeli airstrikes on Iran and the killing of Khamenei and several military officers. (Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images)
“As I said,” the source said, “the possibility is very weak.”
“In short,” Arabi said, “Mojtaba is his father on steroids. He is definitely not MBS.”
