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Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei (born 8 September 1969) is an Iranian politician and cleric who is the second eldest child of Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran. He served in the Iran–Iraq War from 1987 to 1988, and also reportedly took control of the Basij paramilitary militia that was used to suppress the protests over the 2009 election.
Political commentators regard him to be one of the potential candidates to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader.
In 1999, he continued his studies in Qom to become a cleric. Mohammad-Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi, Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani and Mohammad Bagher Kharazi were his teachers there.
Khamenei was speculated to have been "a key figure in orchestrating the crackdown against anti-government protesters" in June 2009. He is believed to have been directly in charge of the paramilitary Basij, a blackout of his name in the regime press notwithstanding.
In an open letter, Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist candidate in the 2009 election, accused Mojtaba Khamenei of conspiring to rig the election in Ahmadinejad's favor, referring to illegal interference of "a network".
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad later accused Mojtaba Khamenei of embezzling from the state treasury.
According to The Guardian and French newspaper Libération, among other sources, he is widely believed to control large financial assets. This allegation was rejected by Assembly of the Forces of Imam's Line, an Iranian political group led by his uncle Hadi Khamenei.
During the presidency of Ebrahim Raisi, Motjaba and Sadiq Larijani were speculated as likely future successors as supreme leader. The death of Raisi in 2024 left Mojtaba and Larijani favored for the position. Unconfirmed reports state that Ali Khamenei has opposed nominating his son as successor. The Middle East Institute opined that Khamenei appointing his own son as successor would cause conflict within the Iranian political and religious leadership.
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