Iran has named Mojtaba Khamenei as its new supreme leader following the death of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The elder Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic Republic for nearly 40 years, was killed in an Israeli airstrike last weekend in one of the first actions of Operation Roaring Lion.
Mojtaba, 56, was confirmed by the Assembly of Experts - a selection panel made up of 88 senior clerics - on Sunday evening.
But who is the new head of the Iranian regime and how is he likely to govern?
Born in 1969, he is the second son of the late ayatollah and Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh after the couple married in 1964.
He was educated in the northwestern cities of Sardasht and Mahabad during his early childhood as his father rose to become one of the most senior clerical figures in the revolutionary movement.
Following the Iranian Revolution in 1979, he attended high school in Tehran, before studying Islamic theology under his father and Ayatollah Mahmoud Sharoudi.
In ideological terms, Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, has described Mojtaba as "like his father - only on steroids".Having joined the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the notorious paramilitary group responsible for enforcing Islamic rule under the regime, at 17, he fought in the Habib bin Muzahir Battalion.
He participated in several major operations in the Iran-Iraq War in 1988, as part of the "notoriously ideological" 27th Mohammad Rasulullah Division.
The following year, the young Mojtaba saw his status significantly elevated after his father became Iran’s second supreme leader after the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
After his military service, he went on to study as a cleric at the "deeply conservative" Qom Shia Seminary, before joining the Office of the Supreme Leader.
But he retained close links with the IRGC and, in 2009, he assumed command of the Basij, one of its five branches.
In this role he was widely blamed for the brutal suppression of protests against the outcome of the 2009 presidential elections after opposition parties claimed the vote had been rigged.
Likewise, according to a leaked IRGC report seen by Aarabi, Mojtaba played a "crucial role in commanding the violent suppression of Iranian civilians in the recent anti-regime protests", which left at least 7,000 people dead.
Following his father’s death, he was believed to be the IRGC’s preferred candidate, despite his father reportedly asking for him to be removed from the running as he felt a system of hereditary succession was too similar to the monarchy that ruled Iran prior to the revolution.
As reported by the JC, his appointment was all but sealed last week under pressure from the group, which apparently pushed for a rapid selection amid concerns of popular uprisings against the regime.
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