What changes in Iran with Mojtaba Khamenei replacing his father

Image of Ali Khamenei is displayed during a public farewell ceremony at the Imam Khomeini Grand Palace, July 5, 2026
Majid Asgaripour/WANA via REUTERS
Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new supreme leader, inherited a political system that his father spent decades building and shaping in his own image. The Islamic Republic of Iran enters a new political era following the burial of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last Thursday (9). He was killed by a US airstrike on February 28, the first day of the war, in his hometown of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran.
The burial comes after a week of large funeral processions, rallies and mourning ceremonies, coinciding with a new escalation of conflict with the United States, after weeks of truce in the four-month-old war. The burial marks the culmination of the funeral in Iran and Iraq, for which the clerical leaders of the Islamic Republic encouraged great popular participation, in an attempt to demonstrate the strength and ideological fervor of their theocratic state.
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Despite having resisted months of intense attacks from the United States and Israel, Iran faces great internal challenges, and the legacy of 37 years of government by Khamenei is strongly contested.
His son and successor, Mojtaba Khamenei, was with him at the time of the attack and has remained out of public view since. According to reports from people close to him, he suffered multiple injuries and his face was disfigured. The younger Khamenei - the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 revolution - was absent even from his father's official funeral ceremonies.
This leadership transition in Iran represents much more than a simple change at the top of the state. It is the tip of a profound and gradual transformation in power structures that occurred over the nearly four decades in which Ali Khamenei ruled the country with an iron fist.
"Unlike Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who established after the revolution a system based on revolutionary legitimacy and his personal authority, Ali Khamenei began to restructure that system in a systematic way," said political analyst Reza Talebi.
Over the past 37 years, the influence on the politics of High-ranking clerics and Shiite seminaries have steadily declined, he noted. In their place, security institutions, the supreme leader's office and the political and military networks associated with him have become increasingly dominant, the expert added.
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This transformation has also altered the role of Iran's elected institutions. In Talebi's assessment, presidential elections have increasingly evolved into contests held within a previously political framework. defined.
Although presidents of different political persuasions were able to pursue their own domestic priorities, they had limited room for maneuver in strategic areas such as foreign policy, nuclear program and regional affairs, Talebi said.
During the six days of official mourning ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, none of the three living former presidents of the Islamic Republic - Hassan Rouhani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Mohammad Khatami - appeared alongside other leading figures from the political establishment.
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Instead, the official images focus on representatives of the security apparatus, especially the commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard, as well as the current president, Masoud Pezeshkian.
It is believed that Pezeshkian maintains a close working relationship with Mojtaba Khamenei. He played a central role in negotiations to end the Iran war. The US and Israeli conflict against Tehran, which continues after the disintegration of a ceasefire, gave way to a diplomatic process that Mojtaba Khamenei ended up approving.
Before that, according to a statement attributed to him and published by state media, Mojtaba had adopted, "in principle", a different position. He announced that he had agreed to the negotiations after President Pezeshkian, acting as chairman of the Supreme National Security Council, assured that he would "safeguard the rights of the Iranian people and the interests of the Axis of Resistance". current speaker of parliament, also played an important role in talks with the US.
On June 14, the US and Iran agreed to a draft memorandum of understanding intended to serve as the basis for negotiations on a broader agreement. However, following the latest escalation in the Strait of Hormuz, US President Donald Trump has cast doubt on the future of negotiations with Tehran, without making clear his next steps.
"Iran interprets Article 5 of the memorandum of understanding as if the expression 'the Islamic Republic of Iran will make the necessary arrangements' grants Iran exclusive authority to establish the conditions necessary for the reopening of the [Strait of Hormuz] crossing," wrote Hamidreza Azizi, a political scientist specializing in in Iranian foreign and security policy, on platform Understand what is behind the new wave of attacks between the US and Iran
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Iran considers control of the Strait of Hormuz one of its most important strategic negotiating assets. Therefore, Tehran wants to prevent the creation of alternative navigation routes - such as those that would pass through Omani waters and involve the US or international organizations - without Iranian approval.
The Revolutionary Guard played a decisive role in the escalation of the confrontation with Washington. According to Mojtaba Najafi, a France-based researcher specializing in emerging political and social movements, the war involving the US, Israel and Iran has significantly strengthened the Revolutionary Guard's confidence as a political and social force. and Iran's future direction will revolve around this axis," Najafi said.
In his assessment, Iran's main power centers see little reason to make significant concessions to moderate political forces outside their network of influence.
It remains to be seen whether the Islamic Republic's traditional political elite will unite around Mojtaba Khamenei and allow him to redefine the country's direction, or whether he himself will become an instrument of these power groups.

Source: G1