Iran taps replacement for ailing Ayatollah Khamenei – report

Tehran’s top clerics reportedly choose a new supreme leader to replace the ailing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who may be supplanted even before his death.

By World Israel News Staff

Tehran’s top Islamic clerics are preparing to replace Iran’s octogenarian supreme leader, according to a report published over the weekend.

The report was released by Iran International, a Britain-based, Saudi-backed dissident Farsi satellite television network, and claims that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the 85-year-old supreme leader of the Islamic republic who has ruled since 1989, is suffering from a medical condition which is increasingly impairing his ability to lead the country.

As such, the 60-member Assembly of Experts, a council of Tehran’s top state Shi’ite clerics, met on September 26th at the behest of Khamenei to select his successor, the report claimed.

After extensive debate and arduous deliberations, the Assembly of Experts ultimately voted unanimously to designate Khamenei’s son, 55-year-old Mojtaba Khamenei, as the country’s next spiritual leader.

A theology instructor for the Qom Seminary – Iran’s largest hawza, or theological school – Mojtaba is considered to be a hardline Islamist radical.

Motjaba backed then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and is believed to have a strong influence on his father’s politics.

According to the report, Mojtaba may succeed his father even prior to his death, given Khamenei’s reportedly deteriorating physical condition and diminishing capabilities.

Khamenei himself has reportedly groom Mojtaba to replace him during his own lifetime, and is said to be considering stepping down to pave the way for the transition of power.

Last week, Iran International reported that a major political scandal in Iran – centered around revelations of high-level corruption involving dozens of senior officials – was part of a larger effort orchestrated by  Mojtaba and his allies to weaken potential rivals and secure his bid to succeed his father.

Former lawmaker Abbas Palizdar, who gave a nearly three-hour interview on a massive, 54,000-page document regarding a string of corruption probes, used the scandal as an opportunity to endorse Mojtaba, saying his leadership would bring Iran to the kinds of “fundamental reforms” the country’s political echelon needs.