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The Sunday Telegraph newspaper mentions in an article by his Middle East correspondent Campbell McDermid in which he talks about speculation about the identity of the successor to the supreme leader of the Iranian revolution, Ali Khamenei.
The writer noted that “allegations about Khamenei’s ill health have been circulating for years, the most recent of which was when Iranian opposition journalist Muhammad Ahvaz claimed in early December that a sick Khamenei had handed over power to his son Mojtaba, 51 years old. ” “Luck was on the eighty leader’s ally, as he survived many health and safety hazards that he had been exposed to until now, such as prostate surgery and the explosive bomb accident that was hidden in a recording”.
He added that “Tehran quickly denied the recent rumors of patriarchal succession, which many Iranian experts had dismissed.”
“Handing over power to his son will undermine the legitimacy of Iran, which has replaced the Iranian monarchy,” said Sanam Wakil, an Iran expert at Chatham House.
The writer said: “The question of who will succeed Khamenei may become critical this year as the next administration of US President-elect Joe Biden returns to negotiations on the Iran nuclear deal.”
Iran is set to hold presidential elections, so with the rise of conservatives and hardliners, the election of a new supreme leader could set the course for the country for decades to come.
The writer emphasized that tension has already risen following the death of General Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind of the Iranian army, who was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad last year, noting that “Iran has said it intends to enrich uranium by up to 20 percent at the Fordow underground nuclear facility.
The writer believed this step would increase pressure on Biden to rebuild the nuclear deal from which Trump withdrew, and although he did not name a successor, Khamenei looked beyond his rule in a statement released in 2019 marking the 40th anniversary of the revolution. .
In that statement, he stressed that the next four decades of the Islamic Republic should be based on the rule of “the young religious generation of Iranians who adhere to and follow the ideals of the Islamic Revolution.”
The writer noted that according to the Iranian constitution, in the absence of a specific successor, the Assembly of Experts selects the next Supreme Leader, which is an 88-member body of Muslim jurists, who are elected every eight years.
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