Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is described as being “more dangerous,” according to a report.
Jaber Rajabi, who previously studied “at a religious seminary” with Mojtaba, explained to the Jerusalem Post that he had previously stated, “If war breaks out, that Mojtaba will try to control the region.”
Rajabi, whose father “fought in the Iraq-Iran War,” and whose mother “worked for a short time in the office” of Mojtaba’s father, also warned that Mojtaba “has a complete disregard for the value of human life,” according to the outlet.
The outlet noted that in a previous interview with The Atlantic, Rajabi stated that Mojtaba is “obsessed with the end of days”:
“Mojtaba, at that time, was very hypocritical. He says something, but inside him there is something totally different,” Rajabi recounted to the Post. Rajabi had earlier told The Atlantic that his former study partner was obsessed with the end of days and had believed “he himself will have a special part in hastening humanity down that path.”
Twelver Shia belief holds that the 12th Imam, Muhammad al-Mahdi, who is believed to be in hiding, will return at the end of times to establish a period of global justice in which oppression is eradicated. Islamic apocalyptic traditions also describe major conflicts preceding this era; in Sunni hadith literature, one such event is the Malhama al-Kubra, a great battle sometimes interpreted as a confrontation with Western powers.
Rajabi also noted that if Mojtaba has no problem killing thousands “of his own people” he also “has no problem killing” thousands in Tel Aviv, Israel.
“If he can kill 13,000 of his own people, then he has no problem killing 100,000 in Tel Aviv, because if you don’t care about the lives of your own people, why would you care about the lives of others in Tel Aviv?” Rajabi added.
Rajabi, who also “worked as a foreign-policy adviser to then-Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,” told the outlet that Mojtaba is the “opposite to his father.”
“Mojtaba will not, from the first day in power, claim to want to take Al-Quds (Jerusalem),” Rajabi said. “He is opposite to his father, who gets angry, and it is visible… Mojtaba can lie in a much better way and knows how to play.”
As Breitbart News reported, Iran’s Assembly of Experts selected Mojtaba to be Iran’s Supreme Leader a week after his father was killed in an Israeli strike on his compound in Tehran.
