Following the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on 28 February, Iran’s Meeting of Consultants has appointed his son Mojtaba Khamenei because the nation’s new Supreme Chief, defying threats from the US and Israel to oppose him.
“By a decisive vote, the Meeting of Consultants appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei because the third chief of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the meeting stated in a press release issued simply after midnight Tehran time.
Key political leaders, the highly effective Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the armed forces have been fast to pledge their backing to the brand new chief.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian stated the appointment heralded “a brand new period of dignity and energy” for the nation.
Critics have famous {that a} father-to-son succession can be politically delicate within the Islamic Republic.
Khamenei himself had reportedly opposed his son’s candidacy, with an Iranian supply near his workplace telling Reuters in 2024 that the chief didn’t need to witness a return to hereditary rule, which many Iranians view as undermining the 1979 revolution that ousted the US-backed monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Mojtaba Khamenei can be reported to regulate a considerable abroad property community.
A year-long Bloomberg investigation discovered that he directs a big abroad real-estate community by means of intermediaries, with no property showing straight in his title.
The portfolio contains luxurious London properties, a villa in Dubai and upscale inns in Frankfurt and Mallorca, with funding routed largely from Iranian oil revenues by means of monetary establishments within the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the UAE by way of shell corporations.
2019: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Iranian Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei. – AP Picture
Frankfurt inns and a reported €400m European portfolio
A key holding recognized by Bloomberg is the Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch, a five-star resort in Germany’s monetary capital.
Company filings present the resort has been owned since 2011 by means of entities tied to an affiliate of Iranian businessman Ali Ansari and was introduced below Hilton’s administration in 2024.
Frankfurt officers have publicly questioned how Iran-linked capital has flowed into town’s hospitality sector.
Particularly, the proprietor is the Iranian multimillionaire Ali Ansari, who is claimed to behave because the liaison for Khamenei’s son.
Ansari denies any connection to the Revolutionary Guards or to Mojtaba Khamenei.
Associated
Ansari, an Iranian development magnate, was sanctioned by the UK in October 2025.
Not one of the paperwork seen by Bloomberg checklist property straight in Khamenei’s title; as a substitute, lots of the purchases seem in Ansari’s title.
In a press release by means of his lawyer on the time, Ansari stated he “strongly denies” any monetary or private relationship with Mojtaba Khamenei and famous his intention to problem the sanctions imposed by the UK.
Do the mullahs have luxurious inns in Frankfurt am Major? – AP Picture
How large is his property empire in Europe?
A separate Monetary Instances investigation, primarily based on company filings, discovered that Ansari had constructed a European property portfolio value roughly €400 million.
The property embrace luxurious properties throughout a number of European international locations, starting from a golf resort in Mallorca to a ski resort in Austria, structured by means of a fancy community of offshore corporations registered in jurisdictions together with Luxembourg, St Kitts and Nevis, Austria, Germany and Spain.
4 March: Iraqi Shiites carry a reproduction of the coffin of the Supreme Chief Ayatollah throughout a funeral service in Najaf, Iraq. – AP Picture
Background and clerical standing
Mojtaba Khamenei was born on 8 September 1969 in Mashhad.
He studied theology in Qom and fought as a younger volunteer throughout the Iran-Iraq struggle within the Nineteen Eighties — credentials that also carry weight throughout the revolutionary elite.
But his authority has largely come from proximity to energy somewhat than his spiritual stature. CBS Information
He holds the rank of hojatoleslam, a mid-level clerical rank under that of an ayatollah.
His father was not an ayatollah both when he turned the nation’s chief in 1989, and the regulation was amended to accommodate him, so an analogous compromise might also be potential for Mojtaba.
Like his father, he wears a black turban, which historically indicators lineage to the Prophet Mohammed.