BREAKING NEWS: Mojtaba Khamenei Officially Appointed as Iran's Supreme Leader

TEHRAN – Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been appointed as Iran’s new Supreme Leader, state media reported. The appointment comes after an agreement reached by the Assembly of Experts. The Assembly’s Leader of the Experts formally announced Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s leader and Iran’s Supreme Leader on Sunday night local time. The council explained that the selection of a new leader was based on “extensive and thorough study.” The council urged the Iranian people to pledge allegiance to the new leadership, emphasising the need for cohesion, unity, and alignment around the “axis of peace.” Mojtaba Khamenei had previously emerged as the front-runner to succeed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, his father, as the new leader. The former supreme leader’s wife Zahra Haddad Abdel is also reported to have died in an attack attributed to the US and Israel. Mojtaba Khamenei was born in Mashhad in 1969, a decade before the Iranian Revolution. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted, and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini took over as Iran’s first Supreme Leader in 1979. Earlier, Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, told Sunday that the Assembly had made a decision and chosen the replacement for Ali Khamenei who was killed by the United States and Israel. The Secretariat of the Assembly will officially announce the name of the new leader. According to Al Jazeera Arabia, Alamolhoda explained that no member of the council has the right to change their opinion in accordance with the constitution. Earlier today, Tehran reports indicated that the Assembly of Experts, the constitutional body responsible for selecting Iran’s Supreme Leader, had determined the person who is “most suitable” to take the post. Member of the council Ayatollah Mohammad Mahdi Mirbagheri said the majority of the council had reached a consensus on the successor of the late Leader. Fars News Agency revealed that the internal selection process had taken place, and the announcement of the name was imminent, given the majority agreement on the identity of the new leadership.