Iran’s new supreme leader has been wounded, state TV in Iran has reported. Mojtaba, 56, the second son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was confirmed as his father’s successor on Sunday after being chosen by the regime’s 88‑member assembly, even though Khamenei had previously opposed the idea of his son taking over.

Mojtaba, a hardline cleric with a reputation among critics for being vengeful, now finds himself under direct threat from Israel, which has vowed to target whoever assumed leadership following the Ayatollah’s death. That danger escalated dramatically after Israeli strikes on the opening day of the conflict killed both Khamenei and Mojtaba’s wife, Zahra Haddad‑Adel, placing the newly appointed leader in a perilous position.

In a state TV report announcing his rise to Supreme Leader, Mojtaba was described as having been wounded in the conflict, with the anchor referring to him as a janbaz—a term used in Iran for someone injured by the enemy—during what Iranian media call the “Ramadan war,” their name for the current fighting.

The broadcast did not specify how or when he was hurt, even though both his father and his wife were killed in Israeli strikes on Tehran at the start of the conflict.

Later in the programme, an analyst suggested that any injury might date back to Mojtaba’s service in the Iran‑Iraq war of the 1980s, though this account did not align with the earlier claim and no clarification was offered.

The report also asserted that Mojtaba, who has not appeared publicly since the war began, speaks fluent English and has completed studies in psychology, adding to the air of mystery surrounding his sudden emergence as leader.

The 56‑year‑old is known as a staunch conservative and previously served in the Habib battalion of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) during the Iran‑Iraq War in the 1980s.

Over the years, he has also been associated with the forceful suppression of domestic protests, a reputation that has shaped how many Iranians view his rise.

His time within the IRGC allowed him to forge close relationships with influential figures who now occupy senior roles across the country’s political and security establishment, giving him a powerful network that continues to bolster his positi

President Donald Trump said Sunday the new leader “is not going to last long” if the Iranians don’t get his approval first.

“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” the president told ABC News. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long. We want to make sure that we don’t have to go back every 10 years, when you don’t have a president like me that’s not going to do it.”

He added, “I don’t want people to have to go back in five years and have to do the same thing again or worse let them have a nuclear weapon.”