US intelligence shows late Iran’s supreme leader was wary of his son taking over, sources say
US intelligence has spread to President Trump and the small circle around him that Iran’s late supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had doubts about his son succeeding him, multiple sources familiar with the matter told CBS News.
Analysis showed that the elder Khamenei was wary of his son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, taking power because he is seen as not crying too much, and is seen as unfit to be a leader, according to sources.
The information gathered also revealed that the father knew that his son had problems in his life, according to sources within the administration, the intelligence community and people close to the president.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is selected becoming Iran’s supreme leader last weekend by the country’s clerical council after serving as his father’s top aide for years.
About eight days earlier, Ali Khamenei was killed in the area Israeli missile strike in the opening of the US war with Israel and Iran.
Mojtaba Khamenei, who is believed to have been injured in that strike, is reported to still be among his father.
Mr. Trump, Vice President JD Vance and other senior officials have been briefed on intelligence about the younger Khamenei.
In private conversations, Mr. Trump has told people close to him that he does not know what information was passed to him about Mojtaba Khamenei’s affairs. He thinks Iran is essentially leaderless right now, and the younger Khamenei may be dead.
The White House believes Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is calling the shots, a significant change in the dictatorship that has existed since the country’s 1979 uprising.
Spokesmen for the CIA, the White House and the vice president declined to comment.
On Friday, Mr. Trump publicly commented on Ali Khamenei’s lack of trust in his son.
“Their leadership is gone. Their second leadership is gone. Now their third leadership is in trouble, and this is not the person my father wanted,” said Mr. Trump told Fox News in an interview.
Mr. Trump has done it called a new “lightweight” supreme leader who will be Iran’s “unacceptable” leader. He also suggested that he wants to look for the next leader of Iran.
The federal government on Friday donated up to $10 million information about the whereabouts of Mojtaba Khamenei and nine other important Iranian officials.
Mojtaba Khamenei is the third supreme leader of Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, succeeding his father and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Succession from father to son is remarkable because the revolution overthrew the hereditary monarchy.
The US, now more than two weeks into the war with Iran, has been seeking to destroy the Iranian regime. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters on Friday that the younger Khamenei was “injured and possibly paralyzed,” while Vance said it was a strike that left him injured. His condition was not yet clear.
