A grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founding father of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is prone to determine prominently within the deliberations of the clerics who will decide who replaces Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as Supreme Chief.
The killing of Khamenei, 86, in a US-Israeli assault has introduced new urgency to the query of who would be the subsequent Supreme Chief, a long-simmering situation over which there had been no readability regardless of his age.
Hassan Khomeini is essentially the most seen of the late Ayatollah’s 15 grandchildren and is seen as a comparatively average inside Iran’s clerical institution.
He enjoys shut ties to reformists, together with former presidents Mohammed Khatami and Hassan Rouhani, who each pursued insurance policies of engagement with the West when in workplace.
Khomeini, 53, holds a symbolically vital position in public life as custodian of his grandfather’s mausoleum in southern Tehran.
He has by no means served in authorities.
Some politicians inside Iran have seen him as a rival to hardliners who gained sway beneath Khamenei, notably his son, Mojtaba.
The case for putting in a average successor to Khamenei gained momentum amongst some Iranian politicians within the wake of unrest that swept Iran in January as a method of shoring up the Islamic Republic within the face of widening dissent.
Khomeini Demanded Accountability For Amini’s Dying
Whereas loyal to the Islamic Republic established after the Shah was toppled in 1979, Khomeini has a monitor report of urging reform and has sometimes voiced dissent in opposition to authorities.
In 2021, he criticized the Guardian Council – the department of Iran’s theocracy liable for vetting presidential candidates — after it barred reformists from operating.
The council’s transfer paved the best way for the victory of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash in 2024.
“You possibly can’t choose somebody for me and inform me to vote for them!” Khomeini stated on the time.
He additionally demanded accountability after Mahsa Amini, a younger Iranian girl, died in 2022 after being taken into custody by morality police, accused of violating conservative costume codes — an incident that ignited countrywide protests.
Authorities “should transparently and exactly account for what has occurred to this 22-year-old woman beneath the pretext of ‘steering and schooling’,” he stated.
However, reflecting his loyalty to the system, the mid-ranking cleric additionally criticised protesters who chanted in opposition to Khamenei.
In the course of the unrest that swept Iran in December and January – the deadliest because the 1979 revolution – he rallied behind the institution, accusing rioters of serving Israel, participating in a pro-government march, and likening a number of the violence to the actions of Islamic State.
In a condolence letter, Khomeini stated Khamenei would perpetually “be the hero of the folks of Iran and Muslims”, including: “The noble folks of Iran will as soon as once more stroll the trail of the Imam (Khomeini) by overcoming this incident.”
‘Progressive Theologian’
An in depth buddy of Khomeini’s, chatting with Reuters in 2015, described him as a progressive theologian, particularly with regards to music, girls’s rights, and social freedom.
He follows developments on social media and is fascinated with Western philosophy as a lot as Islamic thought.
His spouse, Sayyeda Fatima, is the daughter of an Ayatollah, they usually have 4 youngsters.
Some reformists urged him to run for the presidency in 2012, however he declined.
Khomeini supported the Rouhani authorities that negotiated the 2015 nuclear settlement, which eased sanctions in return for limits on the nuclear programme – till US President Donald Trump tore it up in 2018.
He has spoken overtly about financial hardships endured by Iranians throughout years of sanctions imposed over the nuclear program.
Blocked From Operating For Meeting Of Specialists
A decade in the past, Khomeini sought to run in an election for the Meeting of Specialists, the physique liable for selecting the Supreme Chief.
He secured an preliminary nod of approval for his candidacy from Khamenei, who reportedly gave his blessing whereas additionally cautioning Khomeini in opposition to doing any hurt to his grandfather’s title. However he was later disqualified by the Guardian Council.
Although his non secular credentials have been cited for the disqualification – Khomeini holds the clerical rank of Hojatoleslam, one notch under Ayatollah – the transfer was seen as meant to go off a possible problem by the reformist camp.
In 2008, he was extensively thought to be criticising Iran’s highly effective Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) when he stated in an interview that these claiming loyalty to his grandfather’s legacy ought to comply with his order that the navy should keep out of politics.
He nonetheless enjoys shut ties to the Guards, an elite power tasked with safeguarding the Islamic Revolution.
In the course of the 12-day air battle between Israel and Iran final 12 months, Khomeini wrote to Khamenei praising his management and saying Iranian missiles had develop into a nightmare for Israel and a supply of satisfaction for the Iranian nation, in accordance with Jamaran, an Iranian information web site devoted to Khomeini’s reminiscence.
Khomeini has described Israel because the “evil Zionist regime” and “a cancerous tumor” backed by the West, and has stated the Muslim world ought to make itself robust to confront Zionism, in accordance with statements reported by Jamaran.
He’s fluent in Arabic and English, in accordance with the biography, and was a eager footballer till the age of 21, when his grandfather insisted he go to the town of Qom to review Islamic theology.
