Several leading candidates are being considered to potentially replace Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has reportedly gone into seclusion amidst the coordinated military efforts by Israel and the United States against Iran, according to a report. 

A committee composed of three members, appointed by Khamenei, has intensified its efforts to select his successor. This activity has increased after multiple airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, as per information from five insiders familiar with the matter, Reuters stated. 

The frontrunners for succession include Mojtaba Khamenei, who is Ayatollah Khamenei’s 56-year-old son and was sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2019, and Hassan Khomeini, aged 53, who is the grandson of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, according to these sources. 

“Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the Supreme Leader, is designated… for representing the Supreme Leader in an official capacity despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father,” the Treasury Department said in 2019 while sanctioning him.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses the nation on Iranian state television broadcast in Tehran, Iran, on June 18, 2025. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)

The sources reportedly said that no decision has been made yet, more candidates could emerge and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who is regularly kept up to date on the talks – would have the final say.

Khamenei is sheltering right now in a bunker and has suspended all electronic communications with his commanders, according to the New York Times. 

This satellite picture by Planet Labs PBC shows Iran’s underground nuclear enrichment site at Fordow following U.S. airstrikes targeting the facility on Sunday, June 22, 2025. (Planet Labs PBC via AP)

He is relaying orders only through a trusted aide to protect his location amid assassination concerns.