A crowd, holding images of the two, gathers to celebrate Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the recently killed supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his father’s successor at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, March 9, 2026. Mojtaba Khamenei often played a key role behind the scenes as his father turned the Bayt-e Rahbari — traditionally a religious affairs office — into a shadowy national security juggernaut. (Arash Khamooshi/The New York Times) By NEIL MACFARQUHAR In the political…
