Who will be Iran's next supreme leader? One name stands out.

World Who will be Iran's next supreme leader? One name stands out. By Imtiaz Tyab Imtiaz Tyab Senior foreign correspondent Imtiaz Tyab is a CBS News senior foreign correspondent based in London and reports for all platforms, including the "CBS Evening News," "CBS Mornings," "CBS Sunday Morning" and CBS News 24/7. He has extensive experience reporting from major global flashpoints, including the Middle East and the war on terror. Read Full Bio Imtiaz Tyab Updated on: March 5, 2026 / 2:24 PM EST / CBS News Add CBS News on Google The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the early hours of the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran has raised a simple but enormously consequential question: Who will replace him? For nearly four decades, Khamenei sat atop Iran's complex power structure, serving not just as the country's highest religious authority but also as its ultimate political decision-maker. His killing at the sprawling complex that housed his offices and residence in Tehran has created a vacuum in a system designed above all to prevent exactly that kind of instability. Formally, the decision now rests with Iran's Assembly of Experts, the powerful clerical body tasked with selecting the country's supreme leader. In practice, however, the outcome will almost certainly emerge from a much smaller circle: senior clerics, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the security establishment that has long underpinned the Islamic Republic's power structure. Several names have already surfaced. But one stands out. Mojtaba Khamenei The leading contender is Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader's second son. Unlike many figures in Iran's hierarchy, Mojtaba has never held elected office. But for years he has operated quietly behind the scenes from within his father's office, cultivating influence across the security establishment, particularly within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He studied theology in Qom and fought as a young volunteer during the Iran-...