The selection of Mojtaba Khamenei, son of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, as Iran’s new supreme leader sends a clear message that “the regime isn’t reformable,” one foreign policy expert says.
The 88 senior Shiite clerics who met to name Ali Khamenei’s successor could have chosen to largely hold to their “national priorities” and also “send something to [U.S. President Donald] Trump,” said Ilan Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council, but “that’s not what’s happening here.”
Ali Khamenei did not leave a succession plan, but the son is someone who “the hardliners in the system can coalesce around,” Berman told The Daily Signal.
While Mojtaba Khamenei may have been the only clear choice still alive to take the role, his selection contradicts the doctrine of the regime, which opposes dynastic rule.