The names of potential successors to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei resurface at every major political moment in Iran, especially amid reports about Khamenei’s poor health and recurring medical treatment.

So who are the candidates?

Mojtaba Khamenei

• Mojtaba Khamenei is considered one of the most likely figures to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as Supreme Leader.
• He enjoys wide influence within the Iranian establishment, especially inside the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
• He is a cleric who studied in the Qom seminary, and is considered part of Iran’s conservative camp. He is 56 years old.
• He faces criticism from those who oppose political hereditary succession.
• The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned him in 2019. Its website stated that Ali Khamenei delegated some of his responsibilities to Mojtaba, who it said works closely with the commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force and the Basij (a paramilitary force), “to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and repressive domestic objectives.”

Ali Reza Arafi

• Arafi was born in 1959 in the city of Meybod.
• He is the Friday Prayer Imam in Qom, Director of the religious seminaries in Iran, and a member of the Guardian Council.
• He began his rise from heading Al-Mustafa International University, and gradually became an influential figure within the power structure.
• He believes in “looking East” and building strategic relations with Russia and China.

Mohammad Mehdi Mir-Bagheri

• Bagheri was born in 1961 in Qom.
• He is the head of the Islamic Sciences Academy in Qom and a member of the Assembly of Experts.
• He follows hardline policies that reject compromise with the West and call for stricter religious controls such as enforcing compulsory hijab. 
• Some “revolutionary hardline” factions present him as an option for the day after Khamenei’s death.

Ahmad Hosseini Khorasani

• Khorasani was born in 1959 in Shirvan, in eastern Iran.
• He is a member of the Guardian Council, represents the province of Khorasan Razavi in the Assembly of Experts, and is a member of the Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom.
• He joined the Guardian Council in 2021 by decree from Khamenei.
• Hosseini Khorasani is considered one of the strongest defenders of the IRGC.
• He follows an anti-Western approach, but believes the solution lies in “diplomatic strength and internal empowerment.”

Hassan Ameli

• Born in 1962 in Ardabil.
• He serves as the Friday Prayer Imam of Ardabil in northwestern Iran and the province’s representative in the Assembly of Experts, and belongs to the hardline Principlists current. He holds strong influence inside Iran.
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Iran Protests (AFP).