Who was Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and how influential is his family?

 Who was Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei and how influential is his family?

Iran's state-run Tasnim news agency has confirmed that the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, has been killed in a US-Israeli airstrike.

Earlier, Donald Trump claimed that Ali Khamenei had been killed on the first day of the joint US-Israeli airstrikes.

Ali Khamenei was the second person to become Iran's supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. He took over the post after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 and was seen by many young Iranians as the only one in that role.

He was known for his central position in the Iranian state's power structures. As supreme leader, Khamenei had veto power over any government matter. He also had the authority to nominate anyone he wanted to run for public office.

As head of state and commander-in-chief of the army, he was considered the most powerful man in Iran.

Iranian presidents often made headlines abroad, but in Iran, the real power remained in Khamenei’s hands.

How powerful is Khamenei's son, Mojtaba?

Mojtaba attended Tehran's Allawi High School, the school traditionally attended by the children of Iran's top government officials.

He married the daughter of conservative figure Gholam Ali Haddad Adel while he was still a scholar and was considering starting religious studies in Qom. Mojtaba began formal religious education at the Qom seminary at the age of 30.

By the mid-2000s, Mojtaba's influence in Iranian political circles had grown considerably, but the media rarely reported on him.

Mojtaba first made headlines in 2004 when a presidential candidate named Mehdi Karroubi wrote an open letter to Ayatollah Khamenei accusing him of working behind the scenes to support Ahmadinejad.

Since the 2010s, he has been seen as one of the most influential figures in Iran. Khamenei is believed to see him as his most suitable successor, although some official sources deny this.

An ayatollah is not a monarch who can hand over his throne to his son, but Mojtaba has considerable influence in the Ayatollah's inner circle, including the office of the Supreme Leader.

The office of the Supreme Leader is in many ways more powerful than constitutional institutions.

Khamenei's eldest son is Mustafa Khamenei. His wife is the daughter of conservative cleric Azizollah Khoshwat.

Mustafa and Mojtaba served on the front lines during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s.

Ali Khamenei's third son, Massoud, was born in 1972. He is married to the daughter of Seyyed Mohsen Kharrazi, a scholar from the Qom Madrassa Teachers' Association.

Massoud Khamenei remains out of political circles and very little

is known about him.

He was previously the head of the office that serves as a major propaganda center for Ayatollah Khamenei. In addition, the office also serves as the repository for his father's works. Massoud is also responsible for compiling Khamenei's biography and memoirs.

Khamenei's youngest son, Maytham, was born in 1977 and, like his three brothers, is also a scholar.

His wife is the daughter of Mahmoud Lolachian, an influential businessman who is known to have financed revolutionary religious leaders before the 1979 revolution.

 

Maytham has worked with his older brother Massoud in the office responsible for preserving their father's works.

Who are Khamenei's daughters?

Very little is known about Khamenei's daughters, Bushra and Huda. Both are the youngest of their siblings and were born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Born in 1980, Bushra is married to Mohammad Javad Golpayegani, the son of Gholamhossein Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani. Gholamhossein Mohammad Mohammadi is the chief of staff in Khamenei's office.

Khamenei's youngest child, Hoda, was born in 1981. She is married to Misbah-ul-Hoda Bagheri Kani, who teaches at Imam Sadiq University.