Frontrunners emerge as Iranian officials discuss possible successors to Khamenei: report

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Multiple frontrunners are emerging to succeed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the 86-year-old has gone into hiding during Israel and the United States’ joint military campaign against the Islamic Republic, a report said. 

A three-man committee appointed by Khamenei to identify his successor has ramped up its activity in recent days following repeated waves of airstrikes targeting Iran’s nuclear program, Reuters reported, citing five sources with knowledge of the discussions. 

Two names rising to the top of the list are Mojtaba Khamenei – the ayatollah’s 56-year-old son who was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2019 – and Hassan Khomeini, the 53-year-old grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini, the architect of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, according to the sources. 

“Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the Supreme Leader, is designated… for representing the Supreme Leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father,” the Treasury Department said in 2019 while sanctioning him.

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Hassan Khomeini, left, and Mojtaba Khamenei, right, have reportedly emerged as frontrunners to replace Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images | Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“The Supreme Leader has delegated a part of his leadership responsibilities to Mojtaba Khamenei, who worked closely with the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and also the Basij Resistance Force (Basij) to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives,” the department added at the time. 

Mojtaba Khamenei currently teaches theology at a religious seminary in Qom and is closely aligned with his father’s hardline views, Reuters reported, citing sources. 

Khomeini, who is more of a reformist and is allied with a faction that is in favor of easing social and political restrictions in Iran, garners respect because of his lineage, according to Reuters. 

In 2024, Khomeini warned of a “crisis of rising popular dissatisfaction” among Iranians due to poverty, Reuters also reported.

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Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation on Iranian state television broadcast in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2025. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The sources reportedly said that no decision has been made yet, more candidates could emerge and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who is regularly kept up to date on the talks – would have the final say.

Khamenei is sheltering right now in a bunker and has suspended all electronic communications with his commanders, according to the New York Times. 

This satellite picture by Planet Labs PBC shows Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordow following U.S. airstrikes targeting the facility on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

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He is relaying orders only through a trusted aide to protect his location amid assassination concerns. 

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and Beth Bailey contributed to this report. 

Greg Norman is a reporter at Fox News Digital.