Mojtaba Khamenei has been appointed Iran's new supreme leader, following the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the US-Israeli strikes on February 28, the country's state media reported early Monday.
His selection was made by the Assembly of Experts, the 88-member body of elected senior clerics that has the authority to appoint the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic.
This is only the second time that the Assembly of Experts has chosen a new supreme leader since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979. The first was more than three decades ago, when Ali Khamenei was hastily selected after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Assembly of Experts calls on Iranians to pledge support for new leader
Iran's Assembly of Experts - the religious body that appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran's next supreme leader - called on Iranians to maintain their unity and pledge to support Khamenei.
In a statement carried by state media, the assembly said Khamenei was chosen after a "decisive vote."
He called on all Iranians, "especially the elites and intellectuals of theological schools and universities," to "declare allegiance to the leadership and maintain unity."
