DUBAI:) Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was named as his successor on Sunday, had long been considered a contender to the post even before an Israeli strike killed his father and despite the fact he has never been elected or appointed to a government position.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei was not seen publicly in the days after an Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father at the start of the war. Also killed in that strike were the younger Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy.

Mojtaba Khamenei will now have a central say in Iran’s war strategy, with the country’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answering to him. The announcement of his selection came after signs of a rift among Iranian officials as Iran awaited the decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects the supreme leader.