Iran has selected a new supreme leader to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei following his death in a U.S.-Israeli strike, while rejecting demands from President Donald Trump to have any role in the leadership selection.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts — the powerful body of senior clerics responsible for choosing the country’s supreme leader — announced Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s 56-year-old son, will succeed his father.
CNN’s Jeremy Diamond, reporting from Tel Aviv, said the decision came just over a week after the killing of Ali Khamenei during the opening phase of the conflict with Israel.
“This is just in from Iran’s Assembly of Experts,” Diamond said. “This is the body of senior Iranian clerics responsible for electing the next supreme leader, and they have now chosen, just over a week after the assassination of the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his son Mojtaba Khamenei as his successor.”
Diamond noted that Mojtaba Khamenei is widely seen as a hardline figure with close ties to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
“He is known for having close ties to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, and his selection will largely be viewed as a continuation of his father’s rule,” Diamond said. “This is quite a hard-line stance for the Assembly of Experts to be choosing as the next supreme leader of Iran.”
According to the report, Mojtaba Khamenei was wounded in the same strike that killed his father. The attack also killed his wife.
His appointment comes amid escalating tensions with the United States and Israel, both of which have sharply criticized Iran’s leadership.
President Trump had previously dismissed the possibility of Mojtaba Khamenei becoming supreme leader, calling him a “lightweight” in an interview with Axios and saying such a choice would be unacceptable.
Iranian officials, however, have firmly rejected any suggestion that Washington could influence the selection.
Speaking Sunday on NBC News’ Meet the Press, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the choice of supreme leader is strictly an internal matter for Iran.
When asked whether Iran would allow Trump any role in choosing the country’s next leader, Araghchi responded bluntly.
“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs,” he said. “This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader. They have already elected the Assembly of Experts, and the Assembly of Experts will do the job. It is only the business of the Iranian people and nobody else’s business.”
Araghchi also pushed back on Trump’s earlier demand for Iran’s “unconditional surrender.”
“This is what he asked the previous time in June, when Israel started to attack us,” Araghchi said. “President Trump used the same phrase, ‘unconditional surrender.’ That was the tweet he made. And that didn’t happen.”
“We resisted, and after 12 days Israelis asked for an unconditional ceasefire,” he continued. “So we never give up, we never surrender, and we will continue to resist as long as it takes. We are defending our territory, our people, and our dignity. And our dignity is not for sale.”
Even as Iran moves forward with its new leadership, Israeli officials have issued stark warnings that the country’s next leader will also become a target.
Days before the leadership announcement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that anyone appointed to lead Iran’s ruling regime could face assassination if they continue policies hostile to Israel and its allies.
“Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime to continue and lead the plan to destroy Israel, to threaten the United States and the free world and the countries of the region, and to suppress the Iranian people will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” Katz wrote in a post on X.
“It does not matter what his name is or the place where he hides,” he added.
Katz said he and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have instructed the Israel Defense Forces to prepare for such action as part of Israel’s ongoing military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Lion’s Roar.
“The Prime Minister and I have instructed the IDF to prepare and act by all means to carry out the mission as an integral part of the objectives of Operation Lion’s Roar,” Katz said.
He added that Israel will continue coordinating with the United States to weaken the Iranian regime and create conditions that could lead to political change inside the country.
