Even Iran’s power broker opposed it···A ‘Game of Thrones’ over Mojtaba’s selection - 경향신문

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Iranian security forces stand in front of a large billboard in Tehran, Iran, on the 13th (local time) featuring images of Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and military commanders. EPA Yonhap

Behind the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei (56) as Iran’s new Supreme Leader lay a fierce power struggle between the hard-line Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the moderates. Not only did his father, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oppose Mojtaba’s elevation, but Ali Larijani, the secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council to whom Khamenei had handed real power during his lifetime, was also reported to have opposed it and tried to derail it.

The New York Times (NYT) reported on the 16th (local time) that internal divisions and a power struggle over the selection of Iran’s Supreme Leader made it seem like an Islamic Republic version of a ‘Game of Thrones.’ The NYT said that had Khamenei died a natural death, Mojtaba would not have been chosen as successor, adding that of the three candidates for succession Khamenei presented to his close aides during his lifetime, Mojtaba was not among them.

From Khamenei’s death on the first day of the war, the 28th of last month, until the 8th, when Mojtaba was chosen as Supreme Leader, hard-liners within the Revolutionary Guard and moderates waged an intense covert struggle while putting forward their own candidates. The hard-liners wanted to maintain continuity of rule against the United States and Israel, which demand regime change, and domestic anti-government forces, while the moderates called for a new leader and governing approach and an end to hostility with the United States.

Mojtaba had the powerful backing of the Revolutionary Guard. Commander-in-chief Ahmadi Vahidi, former commander Ali Aziz Jafari, and parliament speaker and former commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf supported him. Hossein Taeb, who headed the Guard’s intelligence organization and directed assassination operations at home and abroad, also backed him.

Ali Larijani, secretary-general of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC). Reuters Yonhap

But Mojtaba hit a major obstacle: opposition from Secretary-General Larijani, the power broker who has been steering state affairs after Khamenei’s death. He opposed on the grounds that a moderate, unifying leader was needed and that Mojtaba would foment division. President Masoud Pezeshkian, a moderate, also voiced opposition.

The moderates put forward former president Hassan Rouhani, a centrist who helped clinch the 2015 nuclear deal with the United States, and Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of Iran’s theocratic system, as candidates. They also proposed the cleric Alireza Arafi.

The wartime situation worked to the hard-liners’ advantage. The Assembly of Experts, made up of 88 clerics, tilted toward installing Mojtaba, the son of a ‘martyr,’ as Supreme Leader to exact ‘bloody revenge’ against the United States and Israel. In the first vote of the Assembly of Experts on the 3rd, Mojtaba secured more than two-thirds support. The Iranian government planned to announce this in the early hours of the 4th, but Secretary-General Larijani blocked it.

Larijani proposed postponing the announcement until after the war, citing personal security concerns amid Israeli threats to eliminate the successor. He also argued that online voting was invalid because members of the Assembly of Experts must vote in person. Messages also circulated that Mojtaba himself did not want the Supreme Leadership. However, some viewed this as a customary, formulaic refusal.

Khamenei’s top military adviser and his chief of staff also opposed Mojtaba’s selection. They demanded that the first vote be rescinded, presenting a will stating that Khamenei did not want his son or any family member to become his successor and that hereditary transfer of power would violate the essence of the Islamic Revolution that overthrew the monarchy in 1979.

Ayatollah Ali Moalemi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, likened the moderates’ attempt to a “coup,” criticizing that “there was an external hand that infiltrated us and sought to exert influence.”

Portraits of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (right), founder of Iran’s theocratic system, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (center), and new Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei (left) are sold on a street in Sanaa, Yemen, on the 13th (local time). EPA Yonhap

The moderates’ ‘last-minute reversal’ attempt collapsed after President Pezeshkian announced on the 7th that attacks on Gulf states would be halted and issued an apology, enraging the Revolutionary Guard. The Guard leadership pressed the Assembly of Experts to convene immediately and, in a final vote, choose Mojtaba as Supreme Leader. On the night of the 8th, the Assembly of Experts elected Mojtaba Supreme Leader with 59 votes in favor out of 88. It showed that the Revolutionary Guard held the reins in Iran’s wartime politics.

As news spread that Mojtaba had been injured in an airstrike and questions mounted over his whereabouts and health because he had not appeared in public, a new statement in Mojtaba’s name was released on the 16th. Mojtaba said all heads and managerial posts of public institutions appointed by Khamenei would remain in place, stating, “We must continue to work on the basis of the policies and methods that the Great One granted during his lifetime.”

Mojtaba also appointed Mohsen Rezaei (72), an ultra-hardliner from the Revolutionary Guard, as a military adviser. Rezaei served as the Guard’s longest-serving commander-in-chief for 16 years, and his appointment is interpreted as a resolve to continue a hard-line response toward the United States and Israel.