DUBAI (Reuters) — Iran’s clerical leadership chose confrontation over compromise in appointing Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, a move regional officials say is a direct rebuke to US President Donald Trump, who had declared the son “unacceptable.”

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed on February 28 in the opening salvo of the ongoing US-Israeli bombing campaign in Iran, which has responded with missile and drone strikes across the region.

The appointment of Mojtaba as his successor by the Assembly of Experts locks hardliners firmly in control in Tehran — a gamble that could reshape Iran’s war with the US and Israel and reverberate far beyond the Middle East.

“Having Mojtaba take over is the same playbook,” said Alex Vatanka, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute. “It’s a big humiliation for the United States to carry out an operation of this scale, risk so much, and end up killing an 86-year-old man, only to have him replaced by his hardline son.”

Under Iran’s complex, theocratic system, the supreme leader is the ultimate authority, including over foreign policy and Iran’s nuclear program, as well as guiding the elected president and parliament.

Analysts say the choice of Mojtaba, a deeply hardline cleric whose wife, mother and other family members were also killed in US–Israeli strikes, sends an unequivocal message: Iran’s leadership has rejected any prospect of compromise to preserve the system and sees no path forward except confrontation, revenge and endurance.

According to insiders, Mojtaba will face immense internal and external strain from a disaffected population and an escalating conflict, but is expected to move swiftly to consolidate power.

That will likely mean expanded authority for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), harsher domestic controls and sweeping repression to crush dissent.

“The world will miss the era of his........

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