With Mojtaba Khamenei, the Iranian regime elevated a dangerous ideologue who is obsessed with the end times – and even believes he is a prophesied figure playing a key role in bringing about the return of the Mahdi, according to several experts.

This isn’t particularly surprising considering that “Iran is a theocracy in which the mosque is the state, the Qur’an provides constitutional logic, and eschatology shapes foreign policy,” as Ali Siadatan has recently explained on AIN.

Nevertheless, the new supreme leader, who has yet to appear in public, is particularly radical, even compared to his own father, warned Jaber Rajabi.

The regime in #Iran has been holding rallies today in support of Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation as supreme leader. But Mojtaba has not made any public appearance since he’s been named leader. No photo, no video message. Under the current wartime conditions, there are significant… pic.twitter.com/uIs3Q5VunE— Jason Brodsky (@JasonMBrodsky) March 9, 2026

He is a former Iranian operative who participated in the creation of Iran’s proxy forces in neighboring Iraq, and studied with the new Supreme Leader in the Shia seminaries in Qom in his youth.

Speaking on ArabCast, Rajabi noted that the elder Khamenei wasn’t as obsessed with the end times, nor was he a racist like his son, who believes in “Persian supremacy.”

“He (Mojtaba) says the Persians are the true companions of the Imam of the Time, the Awaited Mahdi. Persians first… Mojtaba, from the beginning, has been a hardline Shia extremist.”

In a recent interview with The Atlantic, journalist Graeme Wood recounted that Rajabi had told her that while the elder Khamenei “demonstrated a willingness to bend and reach out to allies to ensure his regime’s survival… Mojtaba, by contrast, is calculating and ideological, and willing to cause terrible destruction to the world just to prove a point.”

Over the past few months, Rajabi has given several interviews, warning that his former study partner is much more dangerous than his father, and had predicted that he would grab power long before he was chosen to succeed his father.

In The Atlantic, Rajabi recounted that during their studies, “he came to view the supreme leader’s son as a brilliant zealot, much more extreme and uncompromising than his father, and a uniquely dangerous potential successor.”

He described Mojtaba as “apocalypse-obsessed” at this time, adding that “He thinks there are milestones on the path to the end of the world and he himself will have a special part in hastening humanity down that path.”

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