Iran’s new untested chief faces an existential battleprinted at 05:39 GMT
Lyse Doucet
Chief worldwide correspondent
Image supply, ReutersA frontrunner who has by no means been totally examined takes the helm in Iran when its theocracy faces its best check in 5 a long time.
Continuity and connections have pulled Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to the highest after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, within the first salvos of this war.
But Iran’s third supreme chief since its 1979 revolution takes cost as the Islamic Republic confronts an existential battle.
For those that nonetheless mourn the loss of the numerous 1000’s killed in that crackdown on these protests, a harsh, hardline regime appears set to develop into even harsher.
Mojtaba Khamenei labored for many years in his father’s shadow; he is aware of all the small print about how the deep state works when it confronts exterior threats and inner upheaval.
And this war is not only a political struggle; it is intensely private. It’s additionally about revenge.
Mojtaba Khamenei misplaced not simply his father within the Israeli strike on the supreme chief’s compound, but in addition his mom, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, his spouse Zahra Haddad-Adel, as effectively as a son, on that fateful Saturday morning.
Trump is warning that Mojtaba Khamenei “won’t last long”. He is in Israel’s sights too, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling him “an unequivocal target”.
So Khamenei should stay within the shadows for some time. It will deepen the thriller round this reclusive cleric.
