If media reports are to be believed, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seriously ill and preparations have been started to find his successor.
According to the ‘New York Times’, the 85 –the year-old supreme leader is “seriously ill” and his 55-year-old son Mojtaba Khamenei is likely to succeed him after his death.
Ali Khamenei has kept a brave face and appeared in public as recently as the Israeli attack on the Shia nation on October 26, 2024, when the spiritual and religious leader said that the attack should neither be exaggerated nor taken lightly.
Will Son Mojtaba Khamenei Succeed Supreme Leader?
After then Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash in May, concern to elect a new Ayatollah was raised. Mojtaba is still in the fray, but the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps may have a major say in the final decision.
Ali Khamenei has served as the supreme leader of Ayatollah since 1989 after the demise of the first Ayatollah, Rohallah Khomeini.
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He was in the news also when he opened a Hebrew-language account on social media platform X, shortly after the Israeli attack. In his first post on the account, he wrote, “In the name of Allah the merciful and compassionate.”
Israel’s Assassination Plot!
‘The Jerusalem Post’ has reported that Israeli television Channel 14 showed an image of assassination targets recently. But it did not include Ali Khamenei. The list of possible targets included Iraqi Shi’ite cleric Ali Al Sistani, Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, who was killed last week, Yemeni Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al Houthi, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary-General Naim Qassem, and Quds Force commander Esmail Qaani.
The Israeli newspaper has also reported that after Israel targeted the Iranian defense establishment and its military infrastructure and weapons including ballistic missiles, the assassination attempt on Ali Khamenei cannot be ruled out.
The Powerful Despot
Ali Khamenei’s death may create a void, that will be difficult to be filled by the Shiite country for a long time. After ruling Iran with iron hands for 35 years, he is considered as one of the most ruthless rulers of his time. He has held sway over the executive as well judiciary so strongly that thousands of people were arrested and scores of them were given death sentences in the movement that started after the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022. The woman died in police custody after she was arrested for not wearing the hijab properly.
Besides, Khamenei also enjoys unfettered control over all branches of the government, the military and the media. His significance can be gauged by the fact that all members of the Guardian Council are elected directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader.
The Ruthless Ruler
Ali Khamenei has been ruthless in crushing protests and popular anti-regime movements. He crushed the 1994 Qazvin protests, the 1999 student protests, the 2009 presidential election protests, and the 2011–12 protests. He also quelled the 2017–18 protests, the 2018–19 general strikes and protests, the 2019–20 protests, and the 2021–22 protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini. It has been easy for him to imprison journalists, bloggers, writers, poets, intellectuals, or anyone who goes against the repressive regime by slapping blasphemy charges on them. Blasphemy charges if proven may bring the death penalty, not uncommon in the Shiite country.
Though the supreme leader lacks the personal charisma, mass appeal and clerical standing of his predecessor Ayatollah Rohalla Khomeini, he has somehow managed to continue with his legacy of governance by playing one group of people against the other and keeping his position above all and safe. As he has been the supreme leader for more than three decades after emerging from the Islamic Revolution of 1979 against Shah Pehalvi, Ali Khomenei has placed his loyalists across the spectrum of governance. He has created a parallel system of governance through the army, intelligence agencies, parliament, judiciary and other institutions.
It will indeed be difficult for Mojtaba Khamenei, or whosoever is elected Ayatollah, to fit in the shoes of his father.
