Iran's new leader has never been tested. He now faces an existential battle A leader who has never been fully tested takes the helm in Iran when its theocracy faces its greatest test in five decades. Continuity and connections have pulled Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to the top after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the first salvos of this war. But Iran's third supreme leader since its 1979 revolution takes charge as the Islamic Republic confronts an existential battle. Large crowds, the foot soldiers of the revolution, took to the streets immediately to shout "Allahu Akba
Iran's new leader has never been tested. He now faces an existential battle A leader who has never been fully tested takes the helm in Iran when its theocracy faces its greatest test in five decades. Continuity and connections have pulled Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to the top after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the first salvos of this war. But Iran's third supreme leader since its 1979 revolution takes charge as the Islamic Republic confronts an existential battle. Large crowds, the foot soldiers of the revolution, took to the streets immediately to shout "Allahu Akba