A senior Iranian cleric involved in the vote to choose a new supreme leader indicates Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba will be his successor, although a formal announcement is still to come.
The comment by Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the Assembly of Experts, follows growing expectations that Mojtaba Khamenei, a hardline cleric like his father, will be named as supreme leader, a position giving him the final say in all matters of state in the Islamic Republic.
“The name of Khamenei will continue,” Eshkevari, one of the 88 members of the assembly, says in a video published in Iranian media.
“The vote has been cast and will be announced soon.” Eshkevari says, without providing further details.
The elder Khamenei, Iran’s former supreme leader, was killed on the first day of US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
If confirmed, the selection of his son could draw the ire of US President Donald Trump who has said he should have a role in the choice of the next leader, a demand Iran has roundly rejected. Trump has called Mojtaba Khamenei “unacceptable.”
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