Mojtaba Khamenei is the cleric named as leader of the Islamic Republic following the assassination of Ali Khamenei during the 2026 Iran war, and the subject of an assessment John Kiriakou gave in answer to a viewer’s question.
The one objection
Kiriakou’s criticism is confined to a single point, and it is about appearances rather than the man. “I don’t think the only criticism is that he’s got the same last name as his dad. You know, I think that just makes it you know, it opens Iran up to the criticism that they’re basically setting up a North Korean like hereditary system.”[1]
He then declined to hold the appearance against the appointment: “But I don’t think John, I don’t think that’s knowing what I know about Iranians, I don’t think I think this was an act of defiance.”[1]
The defiance reading
The defiance Kiriakou has in mind is directed at one man. “It’s only because Donald Trump said it’s not going to be this guy cuz I don’t like him and I’m going to choose the next leader of Iran. They were like, oh yeah? And then they made Mojtaba Khamenei Khamenei uh Ayatollah.”[2]
He reads it as the end of a long sequence of concessions, the Iranians, he says, “have been compromising and compromising and compromising and they’re done.”[3]
On the man himself Kiriakou is brief and openly second-hand. “That guy is he’s 54 56 years old, but he’s highly respected from what I’ve I’ve been told. Highly respected.”[3]
The assessment is consistent with the one Kiriakou gave of the assassination that created the vacancy, recorded at killing Khamenei, that removing the man does not remove the office, and that the replacement was always likely to be at least as hard-line.