{"id":1133,"date":"2026-07-07T12:18:23","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1133"},"modified":"2026-07-07T12:18:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T07:18:23","slug":"where-is-mojtaba-khamenei-vox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=1133","title":{"rendered":"Where is Mojtaba Khamenei? | Vox"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"zephr-anchor\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">For 36 years, the question of who ultimately ruled Iran had one answer: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While Iran has an elected president and legislature, that power is subordinate to the religious supreme leader, who has the last say over all foreign and domestic policies and is the commander in chief of Iran\u2019s conventional military and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Corps. Whenever the US confronted Iran, American policymakers knew it was Khamenei who would make the final decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--block-placement _13j8zv42 _13j8zv40 duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<div class=\"duet--article--highlight _10sa9oml _1a70pe0\">\n<div class=\"_1a70pe6\">\n<ul class=\"duet--article--unordered-list _10sa9omi uyby7v0 pn04iq1 _1a70pe7\">\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">Three months after succeeding his father as supreme leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei has still not been seen in public. He missed his father\u2019s funeral on July 4. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">With the supreme leader taking a less active role, other power players in the Iranian regime have become more independent and outspoken, jockeying for position in the new system. <\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"uyby7v1\"><span class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">It\u2019s still unclear exactly what the new system will look like. One possibility is a less overly religious but still authoritarian and nationalistic regime.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">They\u2019re no longer so sure, however. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/481171\/ayatollah-khamenei-killed-legacy-iran\">Joint US-Israeli airstrikes<\/a> on the first day of the war four months ended Khamenei\u2019s rule. On July 4, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/middle-east\/three-sons-irans-slain-leader-khamenei-appear-funeral-not-his-successor-2026-07-05\/\">tens of thousands of mourners<\/a> flooded the streets of Tehran for the former supreme leader\u2019s funeral, many waving flags and chanting slogans vowing vengeance against the United States and Israel. The event began a week of mourning throughout the country before Khamenei\u2019s burial on Thursday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Three of Khamenei\u2019s sons were in attendance on Sunday, but notably absent was Mojtaba Khamenei, who was named his father\u2019s successor on March 4. Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since then and was also <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/world\/middle-east\/irans-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khamenei-absent-from-wifes-funeral-report\/articleshow\/132143360.cms\">absent from his wife\u2019s funeral <\/a>earlier in the week. No videos, audio recordings, or current photographs have been issued since then \u2014 only <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/12\/irans-mojtaba-khamenei-issues-first-statement-as-supreme-leader-amid-war\">written statements read by the anchors<\/a> on state television or posted on his Telegram channel. Iranian TV networks <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/03\/14\/middleeast\/iran-israel-us-mojtaba-supreme-leader\">have even resorted<\/a> to airing AI-generated videos of him giving speeches.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">There are some reasonable explanations for why he is laying low. Mojtaba is reportedly still recovering from severe and disfiguring injuries to his legs and face suffered in the same airstrike that killed his father and his wife on February 28. And given the fate of his family members and dozens of other senior officials, he could reasonably assume that he was a target. US officials believe that Khamenei is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livemint.com\/news\/us-news\/mojtaba-khamenei-alive-marco-rubio-says-we-havent-seen-him-publicly-and-i-would-imagine-11780443807564.html\">actually alive and participating<\/a> in decision-making. Still, his failure to appear at the funeral disappointed many of the mourners who had gathered, and the longer he remains out of view, the more questions like the following will be raised:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Can anyone truly fill the Ayatollah\u2019s shoes? Could the troubled transition from father to son lead to an Iran that is simultaneously less overtly religious but more nationalistic and authoritarian than before? And most importantly: Who actually rules Iran today?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The unique setup of the Iranian regime \u2014 civilian leaders, but a mullah who holds ultimate power \u2014 has been a complicating factor in previous rounds of diplomatic negotiations with the United States. Even when \u201cmoderates\u201d who favored better relations with the West were in power, any decision had to be signed off by the supreme leader, whose real views were not always immediately apparent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Nothing has changed in the transition from father to son about the formal powers Iran\u2019s supreme leader holds. But while Khamenei has been taking some part in the current US-Iran ceasefire talks including authorizing negotiators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2026\/06\/18\/iran-us-deal-supreme-leader-mojtaba-khamenei-talks\">to carry out direct talks<\/a> with the Americans last month in a published statement and periodically weighing in on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/supreme-leader-says-enriched-uranium-must-stay-iran-iranian-sources-say-2026-05-21\/\">particular negotiating points<\/a>, he does not yet appear to be taking as active a role as his father did in similar situations. \u201cThere is evidence that the power that the supreme leader exercises has diminished significantly,\u201d said Hussein Banai, an expert on Iranian politics and professor at Indiana University Bloomington.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Specifically, he noted that the supreme leader normally plays a \u201ccentral headquarters\u201d role, getting all of the regime\u2019s factions on the same page, voicing a unified message. Iran\u2019s politics has never been wholly unified: There are multiple centers of power, including the religious establishment, the elected government, and the military, as well as competing factions within those centers. But when the supreme leader weighed in, everyone aligned their message with his.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Whatever Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s current condition, that seems to be conspicuously absent now. \u201cThe president says what he wants; the speaker says what he wants,\u201d Banai said. \u201cThere isn\u2019t any coordination.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Combined with the sheer number of senior figures who were killed by airstrikes, there\u2019s something of a power vacuum in Tehran right now.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">\u201cEveryone is fighting for their relevance in this next iteration of the Islamic Republic,\u201d said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East program at Chatham House.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">On the civilian side of the regime, there\u2019s President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate who took power in 2024 after his predecessor was killed in a plane crash. While formally the second most powerful leader in Iran, Pezeshkian saw his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2026\/06\/12\/middleeast\/irans-accidental-president-masoud-pezeshkian-intl\">power and influence curtailed during the war<\/a>. As an advocate for diplomacy, his position could improve if the talks actually deliver economic relief for Iranians.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">More prominent in public in recent weeks has been Mohammed Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, who led the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcnews.com\/world\/iran\/us-iran-talks-war-vance-trump-hormuz-lebanon-switzerland-foundation-rcna351112\">delegations conducting negotiations <\/a>with the United States and appears frequently in the media to explain the government\u2019s positions. As a publicity-hungry conservative populist known as a perennial presidential candidate and implicated in some shady real estate deals, Ghalibaf <a href=\"https:\/\/foreignpolicy.com\/2026\/03\/25\/ghalibaf-trump-iran-united-states-peace-negotiations\/\">may have found his calling<\/a> as the Iranian government\u2019s point of contact with the Trump administration. More than any other figure in the regime, he\u2019s seen his public and international profile rise as a result of the war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">But the degree to which the civilians can actually speak for the Iranian regime as a whole in these talks is perhaps Iran\u2019s single biggest question after Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s real status. On the military side, the most significant ascending figure may be Ahmad Vahidi, commander in chief of the Revolutionary Guard, who has frequently overruled the moderates seeking a quick deal to end the war. According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/world\/middle-east\/the-iranian-enforcer-driving-tehrans-hard-bargaining-with-the-u-s-b848e67c?mod=middle-east_news_article_pos1\">reporting by the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, it was Vahidi who pushed for Iran to launch new missile strikes in June, despite concerns it would imperil the ongoing ceasefire negotiations with the US. Vahidi is under US sanctions for the regime\u2019s crackdowns on protests and is wanted by Interpol for his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Argentina. But he\u2019s not always averse to cutting deals with Americans: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/3\/6\/who-is-ahmad-vahidi-the-irgcs-new-commander\">He reportedly took part in the talks<\/a> with the Reagan administration in the 1980s that became known in the US as Iran-Contra.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">With various voices and factions jockeying for influence, the question is just who is actually in charge of the Iranian system. \u201cThe system is in control of the system,\u201d Vakil said. \u201cI know we all want to think that there\u2019s one individual that has power or authority. There\u2019s no one commander in chief. It is a system that is commanding collectively for the time being.\u201d All this could add up to a far more unpredictable Iran going forward.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Iran\u2019s new leaders are \u201cmuch more reasonable\u201d than their predecessors, and top US officials claim to be developing productive <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ElizHagedorn\/status\/2066546375345537368\">relationships with their Iranian counterparts<\/a>. But the Iranian leadership has also repeatedly shown in recent weeks that it is willing to risk blowing up the talks by using force when it feels its red lines are being crossed, whether that\u2019s Israel\u2019s incursions into Lebanon or threats to Tehran\u2019s control of the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p><h2 class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup\">What will the new Iranian regime look like? <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">At some point, the world will get more clarity on Mojtaba Khamenei\u2019s real role, and a new system will click into place. When the power struggles shake out, that regime will probably be not any more democratic than Iran under the Ayatollah and certainly no more inclined to trust the United States. But it is possible that an Iran will emerge that is less ideological, religious, and revolutionary \u2014 and yet potentially more aggressive \u2014 than what we\u2019ve seen since 1979.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">In a recent article in Foreign Affairs, the Iranian-American scholars Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foreignaffairs.com\/iran\/irans-new-grand-strategy\">argued that Iran\u2019s more \u201ctechnocratic\u201d new leaders<\/a>, many of whom came of age during the brutal Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s rather than the anti-Shah resistance of the 1970s, may be more willing to engage in direct talks with the US than the more ideological cohort led by Ali Khamenei, but may be even more to risk force.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Bigger changes could come on the domestic side. Iran\u2019s famously strict religious laws were already loosening a bit before the war. Though wearing a hijab is still legally required for Iranian women, the law is less enforced and many more <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/live-news\/20260427-as-some-hijabs-come-off-in-iran-restrictions-still-in-place\">women have been going without the headscarf<\/a> since the \u201cwoman, life, freedom\u201d protests in 2022. Some experts expect Iran\u2019s government, particularly if the supreme leader is ultimately playing a muted role, to promote a more secular form of authoritarian nationalism. That may already be underway \u2014 the sight of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/24\/world\/europe\/iran-war-regime-nationalism.html\">partially or even unveiled women at pro-regime rallies<\/a> was one of the more surprising developments of this war.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Vakil said that the government is likely to continue to point to religion as a justification for its policies, but in a moment of crisis and instability, the regime will have to choose its battles, which may mean \u201ctolerating women walking around wearing whatever they want.\u201d What it will not mean, given the hardline positions men like Ghalibaf and Vahidi have taken during previous mass protests, is tolerating dissent or opposition to the political system itself. The hopes, expressed by US and Israeli leaders at the outset of this war, that it would spark a public uprising or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/482018\/kurds-iran-trump-komala\">fracturing of the regime<\/a>, have obviously not come to pass.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The revolution is now nearly 50 years old, and change was coming to Iran eventually, whether the war happened or not. It was already clear in the last years of Ali Khamenei\u2019s life that the system he led was under stress from economic stagnation, international isolation, and public discontent among a population, the majority of whom have no memory of the 1979 revolution. The transition to his successor was expected to be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/politics\/474763\/iran-protests-trump-khamenei\">test of whether the regime could reform itself<\/a> to survive another generation. Thanks to US and Israeli airstrikes, that transition is happening on an accelerated timeline.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">The regime has shown it can survive \u201a and arguably win \u2014 a war with much more powerful adversaries. But a population desperate for a return to normalcy may not get it for some time, given the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/live-updates\/us-iran-war-peace-talks-timetable-unclear-strait-of-hormuz-clashes\/\">uncertain state of the ceasefire<\/a>. Domestic divisions and rivalries that were suppressed during wartime may reemerge now that the fighting has mostly stopped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\">Right now, many Iranians are wondering whether Mojtaba Khamenei is actually in any shape to perform the role his father played for 36 years. But the bigger question may be whether, in Iran\u2019s new political reality, that role will even exist much longer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"duet--article--article-body-component\">\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _10sa9omi itxwjq1 itxwjq0 pn04iq1\"><em>Update, 10:30 am ET, July 6, 2026: This piece was originally published on July 1 and has been updated to reflect the news that Mojtaba Khamenei<\/em> <em>did not attend his father\u2019s funeral on July 4.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For 36 years, the question of who ultimately ruled Iran had one answer: Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. While Iran has an elected president and legislature, that power is subordinate to the religious supreme leader, who has the last say over all foreign and domestic policies and is the commander in chief of Iran\u2019s conventional&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1134,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/platform.vox.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/06\/gettyimages-2283476002.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C8.1151832460733%2C100%2C83.769633507853&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}