Iran elects Ayatollah Khamenei’s son as new Supreme Leader after assassination – as Israel vows to target successor

IRAN has named Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain tyrant Ali Khamenei, as the reeling regime’s next Supreme Leader.

Mojtaba, a 56-year-old cleric who has never held government office, has been the frontrunner since his despot dad’s death in a US-Israeli airstrike last Saturday.

He was elected to rule the rogue nation by the “Assembly of Experts”, a group of 88 mad mullahs responsible under Iranian law for choosing the country’s top leader.

A powerful behind-the-scenes figure, Mojtaba is closely tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s security apparatus.

Israel has already pledged to hit out at bloodthirsty Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s successor.

Vowing to assassinate whoever the next Ayatollah is, defence minister Israel Katz said on X: “Every leader appointed by the Iranian terror regime … will be an unequivocal target for elimination.”

One senior cleric, Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, said earlier that the new Ayatollah must be “hated by the enemy” on the advice of Tehran’s late dictator.

He added that “even the Great Satan (US) has mentioned his name”.

Mojtaba is believed to have been wounded in an assassination attempt as Operation Epic Fury continues to ravage Iran.

Israeli officials think Mojtaba survived an attack on his life earlier this week – but walked away injured.

The radical cleric, who was once treated for impotency in London, was selected as the primary candidate for Supreme Leader following two assembly of experts meetings, regime officials told The New York Times.

He is understood to be an anti-Western hardliner – and he reportedly wielded strong influence behind the scenes when his dictator dad was still alive.

Mojtaba, who reportedly has “a bleak human rights record”, has helped suppress domestic protests and also served in the Iran–Iraq War.

He has advocated for developing nuclear bombs and has strong links to Iran’s brutal Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

His despot dad, however, opposed hereditary rule and his appointment could enrage many traditional senior clerics.

US president Donald Trump branded Mojtaba a “lightweight”.

He wants to pick Iran’s next leader himself, telling Axios on Thursday he needed to be personally involved in the selection process, the same way he was in Venezuela after the capture of Nicolas Maduro.

Since Trump’s Epic Fury blitz took out Khamenei last week, a shady web of stooges he created in a bid to make his regime “coup-proof” – which The Sun this week revealed – have governed in his place.

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was anointed as an interim leader to pull the strings of terror that Khamenei no longer can.

Arafi is a senior cleric and long-time insider of Iran’s religious and political hierarchy.

It comes as Russian military tech has reportedly been found inside the Iranian drone that struck a British RAF base in Cyprus – fuelling fears Vladimir Putin is meddling directly in the Middle East war.

Investigators think the kamikaze drone that hit RAF Akrotiri last week contained a Russian-made Kometa-B navigation system.

The chilling discovery is the first concrete evidence of Kremlin equipment turning up in the escalating Iran conflict, The Times reported.

British military intelligence has now shipped the recovered parts to the UK for lab tests.