By M10News Middle East Bureau
© 2025 M10News.com | All rights reserved
TEHRAN — Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has quietly designated three senior clerics as his preferred successors, bypassing his son Mojtaba and triggering a dramatic shift in succession planning as Israel intensifies its military operations targeting top Iranian command figures.
The 86-year-old leader, reportedly operating from a fortified underground location in Tehran, took the unprecedented step in recent days as fears grow over a possible decapitation strike by Israeli forces.
Multiple Iranian and regional sources, cited by The New York Times and later corroborated by The Jerusalem Post, say Khamenei moved to ensure regime continuity amid a string of high-level assassinations.
“Khamenei has nominated three clerics as potential successors while hiding in a bunker… Mojtaba is not among them,” a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying.
The decision not to include Mojtaba Khamenei — long considered his father’s natural heir — appears to mark a definitive rejection of a dynastic transfer of power, and a calculated move to preserve the ideological foundation of the Islamic Republic during a period of acute instability.
Succession Amid Conflict, Not Ceremony
Iran’s supreme leader is constitutionally chosen by the 88-member Assembly of Experts, but analysts believe Khamenei’s private selections could heavily influence — or even override — that process in the event of his death.
“This is succession planning in real time, not theory,” said one Western intelligence official familiar with internal discussions. “The regime sees a credible risk of sudden leadership collapse.”
The three unnamed clerics are reportedly trusted regime insiders, each aligned with Khamenei’s conservative, anti-Western doctrine and embedded deeply within the Islamic Republic’s clerical and security structure.
Assassinations Accelerate Crisis Planning
The urgency of Khamenei’s move comes as Iran reels from an unprecedented wave of targeted Israeli operations that have eliminated senior Revolutionary Guard figures, nuclear scientists, and intelligence officers.
Among those reportedly killed in the past two weeks are IRGC Commander Hossein Salami and General Gholam Ali Rashid. Israeli strikes on June 13 are said to have killed more than a dozen senior military personnel.
In a sign of internal disarray, Iranian media also reported the arrest of 22 suspected Mossad informants linked to recent intelligence leaks that enabled the strikes.
“The Islamic Republic is acting under the assumption that decapitation strikes are imminent,” The Jerusalem Post wrote Saturday.
Beyond Mojtaba: A Strategic Break from Hereditary Rule
For years, speculation swirled around Mojtaba Khamenei, a hardline cleric with deep ties to the IRGC and ideological institutions, as a likely successor. His exclusion now points to a pivot away from monarchical optics — and perhaps an attempt to avoid triggering internal factionalism.
“Mojtaba’s omission is a signal to the political elite: this is about survival, not bloodline,” said Farshad Imani, a political analyst at the University of Tehran. “The regime wants unity, not succession controversy.”
Regional Fallout and Strategic Uncertainty
Khamenei’s maneuver has raised alarm across the region. Arab Gulf states and Western intelligence services are reportedly monitoring Tehran’s internal dynamics closely, wary of a sudden leadership vacuum.
Diplomatic sources say the Assembly of Experts remains the formal power broker, but Khamenei’s handpicked list could all but seal the outcome if he dies during the ongoing conflict.
“The assembly may hold the vote,” noted the Financial Times in an editorial on Friday, “but the script appears to be written — underground.”
The Bigger Picture
As Iran continues to absorb the impact of Israeli airstrikes while maintaining its proxy operations via Hezbollah and other allied forces, the Supreme Leader’s decision reflects not just contingency planning, but an admission of vulnerability.
Whether or not the names of the three chosen clerics are made public, Khamenei’s move reveals a leadership grappling with its mortality — and urgently constructing a post-Khamenei roadmap amid war, uncertainty, and international pressure.
© 2025 M10News.com | All rights reserved
Reporting contributed by regional correspondents in Beirut, Tel Aviv, and Geneva.
