Naveed
"#Khamenei most likely would not have risen if his father had died a natural death. Ayatollah Khamenei had given his close advisers three names as potential successors. His son was not among them.# https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/16/world/middleeast/iran-mojtaba-khamenei-election-supreme-leader.html
Intrigue, Power Plays and Rivalries: Inside the Rise of Mojtaba Khamenei

The weeklong fight over Iran’s next leader pitted the Revolutionary Guards against moderates. The generals won, but only over spirited resistance.

The New York Times
Mar 16 at 2:19pmWeb
Show threadNaveedMar 16
#Khamenei had powerful allies backing him: The Revolutionary Guards and their newly appointed commander in chief, Gen Ahmad Vahidi; Gen Ali Aziz Jaffari, a Guards strategist in the current war; and Gen Bagher Ghalibaf and Hossein Taeb, a former #IRGC intel chief.
Show threadNaveedMar 16
Opposition to him surfaced from unexpected corners. Ali Larijani, the head of #Iran’s NSC believed the country needed a moderate and unifying leader, and that #Khamenei'd be a polarizing figure. #Pezeshkian and several senior officials and clerics also joined the naysayers.
Show threadNaveedMar 16
On March 7, President #Pezeshkian announced that #Iran would stop attacking Arab nations in the Gulf and apologized. He said the decision to de-escalate with Arab neighbors came from the three-person transition council, of which he was a member, filling in for the supreme leader.