"He (Mojtaba) is alive ... he was not in Tehran when the Supreme Leader was killed," one of the sources said.
Dubai: Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran's late Supreme Leader, has survived the US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran in which his father Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, two Iranian sources said on Wednesday. "He (Mojtaba) is alive ... he was not in Tehran when the Supreme Leader was killed," one of the sources said.
Meanwhile, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has emerged as a central figure in Iran’s power structure after the killing of Khamenei. The hardline cleric is now one of three senior officials entrusted with steering the nation. Arafi was appointed to an interim three-member leadership council to manage state affairs alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei.
If a supreme leader is not named quickly, the clerical establishment risks being seen as weak and unable to guarantee continuity. Some clerics have even viewed Arafi as a potential successor to Khamenei.
