DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has long been considered a contender to the post of the country’s next paramount ruler, even before an Israeli strike killed his father on Saturday and despite never having been elected or appointed to a government position.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when the Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father. Also killed were the younger Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy.

Khamenei is believed to still be alive and likely has gone into hiding as American and Israeli airstrikes continue to pound Iran, though state-run Iranian media have not reported on his whereabouts.

Mojtaba Khamenei’s name continues to circulate as a possible candidate to replace his father, which had been criticized in the past as potentially creating a theocratic version of Iran’s former hereditary monarchy.

But now with his father and wife considered by hard-liners as martyrs in the war against the United States and Israel, Khamenei’s stock likely has risen with the aging clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, who will select the country’s next supreme leader.

Whoever becomes the leader will gain control of an Iranian military now at war and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, should he choose to decree it.

Khamenei had occupied a similar role to that of Ahmad Khomeini, a son of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, which was “a combination of aide-de-camp, confidant, gatekeeper and power broker,” according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a US-based lobby.

And US President Donald Trump may have indirectly boosted his candidacy by criticizing Khamenei in an interview with news website Axios on Thursday and insisting he be involved in selecting Iran’s next leader.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment,” Trump........

© The Times of Israel