Iran security chief says election of new leader caused US, Israel ‘despair’

Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani said on Monday that the election of Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father had left Israel and the United States in “despair.”

“Your selection by the Assembly of Experts as the leader of the Islamic Republic system has caused the hostile and warmongering enemies to despair,” said Larijani in a post on X.

Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen by Iran’s Assembly of Experts to succeed his late father as supreme leader, in a sign that hardliners were still firmly in charge.

The clerical body named the 56-year-old mid-ranking cleric, who has survived the US-Israeli air war on Iran, as successor more than a week after Ali Khamenei was killed in an airstrike.