Iran’s Assembly of Experts has been plagued with infighting over plans to announce Motjava Khamenei, the second son of the assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Iran International reported on Thursday, citing two sources from within the offices of the experts.
The assembly is reportedly planning to meet online on Thursday, though eight members of the 88 experts have allegedly refused to attend in protest of “heavy pressure” by the Revolutionary Guards to appoint Motjava Khamenei. From early Tuesday, IRGC commanders across the country reportedly pressured members to vote for Mojtaba Khamenei through a campaign of meetings and phone calls until minutes before the assembly began.
Motjava Khamenei has formed close political alliances with Ahmad Vahidi, the newly appointed IRGC commander; Hossein Taeb, a former head of the IRGC’s intelligence organization; and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, according to The Guardian.
Six Iranian and regional sources with close knowledge of the IRGC confirmed the guards had taken a far greater role in the hierarchy since the war began on Saturday and were now involved in every big decision, according to Reuters.
Many experts have also reportedly taken issue with “hereditary leadership,” Iran International reported, fearing a monarchical structure.
Expert opposition to Motjava Khamenei's potential appointment
“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was not pleased with the idea of his son’s leadership and never allowed this issue to be raised during his lifetime,” one Assembly member told the chairman and members of the body’s leadership in calls, the sources told the Iranian diaspora site. Other critics have rejected the appointment, arguing that Motjava Khamenei lacks the necessary public clerical and jurisprudential standing, leaving him without religious legitimacy.
Mojtaba was born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad and grew up as his father was helping lead the opposition to the Shah. As a young man, he served in the Iran-Iraq war and went on to later study under religious conservatives in the seminaries of Hom, Iran's center of Shi'ite theological learning, and has the clerical rank of Hojjatoleslam.
Mojtaba has never held a formal position in the Islamic Republic's government, despite being widely seen as the gatekeeper to his father. He has appeared at loyalist rallies, but has rarely spoken in public.
The meeting comes two days after Iran International reported that the Assembly of Experts had chosen Mojtaba Khamenei as the next Supreme Leader under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards. Comments opposing the appointment were reportedly cut short as the vote pushed ahead.
