Before the strike that transformed his fate, Mojtaba Khamenei was a mysterious backroom bureaucrat said to wield considerable influence behind his father's office. Analysts Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi wrote in 2022 that the elder Khamenei was reluctant to appoint his son as successor, fearing it would "catalyse division, chaos, and turmoil within the regime."
But after the February attack, Iran's remaining powerbrokers disregarded the former leader's wishes and selected Mojtaba, interpreting the choice as an effort to maintain continuity and an act of defiance against an enemy seeking regime change.
"He started his leadership from a bunker … so his leadership [was] absolutely weak at the start," Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, author and head of digital at Iran International, told ABC News.
An Iranian ambassador reported that Mojtaba was wounded in the attack, sustaining injuries to his "legs, hand and arm." Beyond that, the new Supreme Leader has remained in hiding. "The leader of the country is in hiding in the country he's supposed to rule. It's a profound thing," said Farzan Sabet, an analyst and researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute.
His absence has fuelled rumours — including claims that he is gravely ill and that public statements attributed to him are written by someone else. Several Iranians the ABC spoke to said they believe he is dead.
Iran is embroiled in war, with poor economic growth, water and energy shortages, a weak currency, and the weakening of most of its proxies. The leadership vacuum at the top adds another layer of uncertainty to the regime's most perilous moment in history.