After the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28, the Iranian Council of Experts appointed his son Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader, despite threats from the United States and Israel to oppose him.
“The Assembly of Experts has adopted a decisive vote to appoint Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third leader of the Holy System of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the Assembly of Experts said in a statement issued after midnight Tehran time.
Key political leaders, the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the armed forces quickly pledged support for the new leader.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the appointment heralded a “new era of dignity and strength” for the country.
Critics point out that father-son inheritance is politically sensitive in the Islamic Republic.
Khamenei himself reportedly opposed his son’s candidacy, and an Iranian source close to Khamenei’s office told Reuters in 2024 that Khamenei did not want to see a return to hereditary rule, which many Iranians believed would undermine the 1979 revolution that overthrew the U.S.-backed monarchy of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Mojtaba Khamenei also reportedly controls a vast overseas property network.
A year-long investigation by Bloomberg found that he managed a significant overseas real estate network through intermediaries and that no assets appeared directly in his name.
The portfolio, which includes luxury properties in London, villas in Dubai and high-end hotels in Frankfurt and Mallorca, was funded largely by Iranian oil revenues, through shell companies and through financial institutions in the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the United Arab Emirates.
2019: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. -AP Photo
Frankfurt hotels and European portfolio reportedly worth €400m
One key holding company identified by Bloomberg is the Hilton Frankfurt Gravenbruch, a five-star hotel in Germany’s financial capital.
The hotel has been owned by an entity linked to an associate of Iranian businessman Ali Ansari since 2011 and came under Hilton’s management in 2024, company documents show.
Frankfurt officials have publicly questioned how Iran-linked capital flows into the city’s hotel industry.
Specifically, the owner is Iranian multimillionaire Ali Ansari, who is said to be a liaison to Khamenei’s son.
Ansari denies any links to the Revolutionary Guards or Mojtaba Khamenei.
Relevant
Iranian construction giant Ansari was sanctioned by the UK in October 2025.
None of the documents seen by Bloomberg directly listed assets in Khamenei’s name; instead, many of the purchases appeared in Ansari’s name.
In a statement issued through his lawyer at the time, Ansari said he “vehemently denied” any financial or personal ties to Mojtaba Khamenei and noted his intention to challenge the sanctions imposed by Britain.
Maura Do you have a luxury hotel in Frankfurt am Main? -AP Photo
How big is his real estate empire in Europe?
A separate investigation by the Financial Times based on company filings found that Ansari has built a European real estate portfolio worth about 400 million euros.
The assets include luxury properties in several European countries, from golf resorts in Mallorca to ski hotels in Austria, and are structured through a complex web of offshore companies registered in jurisdictions including Luxembourg, St. Kitts and Nevis, Austria, Germany and Spain.
March 4: Iraqi Shias carry a replica of the coffin of Supreme Leader Ayatollah during his funeral in Najaf, Iraq. -AP Photo
Background and clerical status
Mojtaba Khamenei was born on September 8, 1969 in Mashhad.
He studied theology in Qom and served as a young volunteer in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s – credentials that remain influential among the revolutionary elite.
However, much of his authority came from proximity to power rather than his religious status. cbs news
He holds the rank of hojatoleslam, an intermediate level of clergy below the level of ayatollah.
His father was also not an ayatollah when he became the country’s leader in 1989, and the law was changed to accommodate his demands, so a similar compromise is possible for Mojtaba.
Like his father, he wears a black turban, which traditionally marks the lineage of the Prophet Muhammad.
