Under an incessant rain of missiles for five days, Iran has decided to postpone the funeral procession scheduled in Tehran to commemorate Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader killed during the US and Israeli attack. The decision to postpone the event was taken a few hours after the announcement of the funeral, which should have been held starting in the evening hours and should have lasted for three days. Officially the ceremony was postponed for logistical reasons, “in anticipation of an unprecedented turnout”, state TV was quick to point out, claiming that the funeral was simply postponed. And while the Iranian capital is still under constant attacks and the bombings also hit other cities in the country, such as Isfahan and Karaj and the Kurdistan region, the Islamic Republic does not yet have a new Supreme Leader. Although it was announced after Khamenei’s killing that the selection of the new leader would take place quickly, it seems that the new Leader will be appointed next week. The Assembly of Experts, a body made up of 88 Shiite clerics responsible for selecting the new leader, has not yet made a decision, also because the body’s offices in Tehran and Qom were hit in recent days. “We are close to the nomination, but we must consider the fact that we are in a war situation,” said one of the members of the Assembly, Ahmad Khatami, while according to the Iranian ambassador to Belarus, Alireza Sanei, the name of Khamenei’s successor will be announced “next week at the latest”. According to ‘Iran International’, a dissident television network based in London, the Revolutionary Guards exerted pressure on the Assembly to achieve the election of Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba. The news has never been confirmed at an official level and, according to analysts, Khamenei’s son is certainly very close to the Pasdaran intelligence but is not an authoritative leader. Thus the majority of the Iranian population will oppose the new Leader, regardless of the name. “We can continue the war for as long as we want,” declared the former Iranian vice president, Mohammad Mokhber, as Iran continues to launch attacks on the Gulf countries and a missile aimed at Turkey was shot down by NATO defenses in the eastern Mediterranean. Armed Forces spokesman Abolfazl Shekari said that “if Israel commits a crime and attacks the Iranian embassy in Lebanon, Iran will take retaliatory measures, targeting all Israeli embassies in the countries in question as legitimate targets.” While Ali Larijani, head of the Iranian Security Council and a very influential political figure in the Islamic Republic, declared that the killing of Khamenei “will cost dearly” to the USA and that President Donald Trump has dragged the United States into a conflict wanted by the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.
Who is Mojtaba Khamanei
Fifty-six years old, second son of Ali Khamenei and favorite son, Mojtaba who takes his father’s place as Supreme Leader of Iran is a politician and religious with excellent relations with the security forces, in particular the Pasdaran. Born in Mashhad in September 1969, he served in the Iran-Iraq war from 1987 to 1988 and in 1999, continued his studies in Qom to become a cleric. He had long been considered Khamenei’s most influential son and a possible successor to his father as supreme leader.
But Mojtaba is also a much talked about figure for alleged enrichments, with real estate properties also in the West, which he spoke about in a recent Bloomberg investigation. He supported Ahmadinejad in the disputed presidential elections of 2005 and 2009, and media reports say he may have played a leading role in orchestrating his election victory in 2009. He had been designated in advance as his father’s successor, and Iran International reported about a year and a half ago that he had been secretly chosen as his successor. Even if recently he would not have been considered a real candidate, because the Guide himself had always said that he did not want a dynastic succession. Rumors had circulated in recent days that he had been killed or seriously injured along with his father. Rumors, however, never confirmed. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported today that Mojtaba was safe and unharmed in the attack, which killed his father, wife and other family members.