Iran's New Leader Seen as 'Most Dangerous Man'

Iran has a new supreme leader, and his ascension to the post doesn't appear to bode well for a quick end to the war. Iran's Assembly of Experts picked Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after the latter was killed by airstrikes. A quick look:

• Hardliner: The New York Times describes Mojtaba as a "mysterious figure" in his own country. The conservative hardliner has kept a low profile publicly but has been influential behind the scenes and has close ties to the Revolutionary Guards. He "mainly [used] his father's influence and he was a gatekeeper to his father, which made him a very powerful person," Mehmet Ozalp of Charles Sturt University tells Australia's ABC.
• 'Most dangerous man:' An associate describes him as "the most dangerous man in the world" to Graeme Wood of the Atlantic, because Mojtaba is "considerably more violent and ideological than his father."

• Longer fight? A Wall Street Journal article has a similar theme, suggesting that the selection of Mojtaba signals a "fight to the end" for the Iranian regime. The pick shows that hard-liners remain in control and is a rebuff to President Trump, who demanded a say in choosing the new leader. Last week, Trump called Mojtaba a "lightweight" and said he was "unacceptable to me," per Axios.
• Personal: Mojtaba has lost not only his father but his mother, wife, and a child (accounts differ on whether it was a son or a daughter) in the US-Israeli airstrikes, reports Sky News.

• Hereditary twist: The choice is striking because the 1979 Islamic Revolution overthrew a hereditary monarchy, and the elder Khamenei had privately told advisers he did not want his son to succeed him on principle, according to the New York Times. Analysts say the decision reflects the closing of ranks among senior clerics, the Revolutionary Guards, and other key officials, who argued that Mojtaba's experience managing security and military apparatuses made him the safest option in a crisis.