Mojtaba faced significant pressure to produce heirs after experiencing difficulties conceiving a child with his wife. (Image: Wiki Commons)
According to US intelligence, Iran’s alleged new Supreme Leader received treatment for impotence in private UK hospitals.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is believed to have been selected by Iran’s Assembly of Experts as the successor to his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Tehran on Saturday.
A classified briefing dispatched by the US State Department to the US Embassy in London in 2008, later disclosed by WikiLeaks, revealed that Mojtaba faced significant pressure to produce heirs after experiencing difficulties conceiving a child with his wife. He underwent treatment four times at London’s Wellington and Cromwell Hospitals for « impotency », according to the document.
Mojtaba married relatively late in life, in 2004, « reportedly due to an impotency problem treated and eventually resolved during three extended visits to the UK », the document states.
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« Mojtaba was expected by his family to produce children quickly, but needed a fourth visit to the UK for medical treatment, » the document states. « After a stay of two months, his wife became pregnant. Back in Iran, a healthy boy was born, named Ali for his paternal grandfather. »
The intelligence report also revealed that « within the Supreme Leader’s office, Mojtaba works in his father’s shadow », accompanying him on domestic travel and wielding « a fair degree of control over access to his father », the Daily Mail reports.
Mojtaba was characterised as « widely viewed within the regime as a capable and forceful leader and manager who may someday succeed to at least a share of national leadership. His father may also see him in that light ». Nevertheless, the document noted that he was perceived as weak in clerical terms.
Mojtaba was characterised as « widely viewed within the regime as a capable » (Image: ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH/EPA/Shutterstock)
Mojtaba Khamenei is the second eldest son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Whilst not a senior cleric, he is understood to maintain robust connections with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
He was sanctioned by the US in 2019 for working « closely » with the commander of the IRGC’s Qods Force and the Basij Resistance Force « to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives. »
Iran International reported on Tuesday that Mojtaba had been elected Supreme Leader by Iran’s Assembly of Experts under pressure from the IRGC, whilst Ynetnews said Israeli officials were anticipating the body to announce his appointment.
Mojtaba married relatively late in life, in 2004 (Image: NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Middle East Institute said in 2022 that although « there is no doubt that Mojtaba wants to be supreme leader », he faced several challenges, The Times reported.
The institute stated: « The concept of a hereditary supreme leader would also go against Shia Islamic convention, with blood lineage for the mantle being exclusively reserved for the 12 divinely ordained Shia imams.
« Today, if Khamenei were to push ahead with this option, after his death it would likely cause uproar across the Shia hawzas (seminaries) and among certain factions of the Islamic Republic’s political elite. »
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