Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei new supreme leader

Let's talk a little bit about how a new supreme leader is selected. And I'm just going to give a little bit of information here that CBS News has compiled that we have reported on here on CBS News 24/7. And the process was established in 1979. This is when Iran's new theocratic government was put into place. It's only been used one other time, and that was to elevate Khamenei as Iran's second ever supreme leader. That was after the death of the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Khomeini. If, at any point, you want to interject, Courtney, you are absolutely welcome to. Now, Khamenei didn't meet clerical requirements as laid out in Iran's constitution for the role at the time, but he was still Khamenei's preferred successor. So the constitution was actually adjusted to allow for Khamenei's ascension. Now, currently Iran, I guess, prior to today, prior to a new supreme leader being chosen, Iran was being run by a temporary leadership council made up of the current president, the head of its judiciary, and the senior cleric from the Guardian Council. That process of picking a new supreme leader is undertaken by the 88 clerics sitting on the Assembly of Experts, supervised by Iran's constitutional watchdog, known as the Guardian Council. So the Council also approves all candidates for the position. Before the Assembly of Experts weighs in, the Assembly Clerics decide on the final choice based on what you and I have been talking about-- political experience, religious qualifications.

Right, and this-- we reported on this earlier this week, that his son was going to be the leader. And then it seemed like the Assembly of Experts was actually having a problem coming to agreement. And there's a couple of really big, strong, powerful families. One is the Khamenei family. Another is the Larijani family and the Rafsanjanis. And under this Islamic Regime, there's also billions of dollars that go towards what they call the revolution, the revolutionary zealotry-- not their words, mine. And so the Larijani family, Ali Larijani, who's really taken a senior position of influence recently, and we've really seen ascend to that again in within the last year or so, he wanted his brother, who's more of a religious figure, more of a cleric, maybe would be considered more of that kind of theological credentials, according to them. And Khamenei, Mojtaba Khamenei, was always considered that he might be the successor of his father. His father was very old. He was 86. They were expecting that they would be naming a successor, not under these kind of circumstances.

Certainly. One thing that's interesting is we talked about the Guardian Council and the Assembly Clerics. But the power is limited because the supreme leader-run Guardian Council controls who could be elected to the Assembly. So it's not like these are two independent bodies, right?

Well, there's actually a constitution, the Islamic Republic's constitution, which has an Article 111, who then put in these three leaders that you mentioned for the interim, the president and the head of the judiciary, who's really considered a hardliner, and a cleric. And we thought it might be the cleric that was on this three-person intermediate government official leadership in the last week. And then we saw that the assembled experts, they did not meet in person this time. Their headquarters has been destroyed. And so they have announced this. And we saw, according to the official state TV, that is in alliance with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, too. This is really an end to any thought that there's going to be any kind of diplomatic solution because Khamenei, like his father, is a hardliner. He's not open to diplomacy. It would be very, very-- it would be a real-- take a real right turn if he was to do that. And that's not expected. So we're looking at somebody that will want to reinforce the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. There have been fractures and fissures, not so much that we could see that they'd fall apart. But I have been seeing that Israel and the US have hit a lot of leaders. And it wasn't just Khamenei, but it was about approximately 40 leaders. And last June, they took out the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And then they did again. Israel did in June, and then US and Israel strikes did this time. So it was like, are they going to be able to break apart the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. And if that was to happen, then would people be able to come out in the streets? Would they feel free without the Basij militias, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard calling the-- carrying out violence in the street, like they did the massacres. So with Mojtaba Khamenei coming in as the new successor, he also is showing that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is remaining strong and intact.

OK, let's go now to CBS News Senior Foreign Correspondent Imtiaz Tyab, who's joining us on the phone. Imtiaz, what can you tell us?

I think this is not surprising, but in itself extraordinary. Mojtaba Khamenei is the son of a man who was assassinated by the US just over a week ago, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has loomed over Iran for decades. He is, of course, seen as a continuity candidate. He is somebody who has worked in the shadows, again, through his father's office. That in itself gave him extraordinary influence. He is known to be very close to the Revolutionary Guard. And that in itself is very important for anybody who's running Iran. But the reality is that Mojtaba Khamenei, although he's well known, has never held public office, has never given a speech publicly, and is now the supreme leader of a country of 90 million people, who is currently being bombed by the United States and Israel. And speaking of the United States and Israel, I can't think of a single candidate who would be considered more antagonistic to President Trump and, to some degree, Israel, than Mojtaba Khamenei. President Trump has made it clear himself that if it is Mojtaba, who he described as a lightweight, that he would not, quote, "last very long in the job," essentially insinuating that Mojtaba will basically suffer the same fate as his father. But Mojtaba Khomeini is an interesting character because if you consider the dynastic politics of the region, it is very established. But Iran has fought against it, at least since the end of the Shah, because the whole point was to have a theocratic country that was ostensibly a democracy, which, of course, it wasn't. The Supreme leader always had power. But they had elections, and he would choose who would win, et cetera, et cetera. So the fact that they've decided to go down this path, understanding that the way it would echo, a monarchist past reasserting itself in this new way, it's very clear that the IRGC wanted to signal to the world and to the people that the system remains, the system remains intact, and they are not going to do what Donald Trump wants or what Israel wants. And I think this brutal conflict that we're watching unfold on our screens right now, certainly on the ground being felt in Iran and elsewhere across the region, including where I am, here in Doha, that this will likely ensure that the conflict we've been seeing will continue in the days, if not weeks, possibly months, ahead.

And you have been in Doha since the conflict began, at least for the larger part of the week. What can you tell us about the involvement of other Gulf countries and also how people are reacting in the region?

Gulf countries are rattled by what's happening to them right now. They have spent decades trying to insulate themselves from the conflicts that we so often see rage across this region. They have built these glittering cities with the many trillions of dollars of oil wealth that they have. And that has all been shattered within a week because of Iran's ability to penetrate their airspace and to rain-- wreak havoc topic in these cities. They want this to end. They have made it clear to President Trump and to Israel this conflict needs to end. We understand that President Trump spoke to the Qatari emir last night, where the Qatari emir said to the president they need to de-escalate, and they need to bring negotiations back to the table, diplomacy to the table. Of course, we then saw some of the most intense bombing of Tehran since this conflict began. So it doesn't feel like, at this stage, the president is listening. But the repercussions of the Gulf states seeing their economies grind to a halt, while we're not feeling it acutely yet, it will happen. Remember, even though the US has become quite sufficient when it comes to its own energy production, it's not able to insulate itself from the global economy. The Gulf is very tied to the US economy, as well. And so at some point, we will see gas prices surge. At some point, we will see inflation spike. At some point, we will see goods that we're used to getting not being available because shipping lanes have stopped. And so these tentacles of this war is not just wrapping around the Gulf, but it'll soon start making its way across the world, into Asia, into Europe, and eventually onto US shores. And the president is no doubt acutely aware of that. But the one thing that the president has not made clear to anybody is what his off-ramp is, what his actual goal is. And I think if he wanted to achieve an Iran that was going to be more pliable and more pliant, similar to what we saw in Venezuela, President himself saying he's looking for the Delcy of Iran, the decision this evening to appoint Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader is not that. It is the opposite, and it is very risky for this whole situation going forward.

And so to catch anybody up, Imtiaz there mentioning Delcy Rodríguez, who became the leader of Venezuela after the US captured Nicolás Maduro, who, for all intents and purposes, appears to be working with the United States. President Trump says the relationship is going great and wanted to, in effect, try and duplicate what they were able to accomplish in Venezuela in Iran, which many critics have said is not possible because of the long, complex history. Imtiaz, is it your sense that Mojtaba Khamenei now will have to essentially lead in hiding because the US and Israel have made threats, both veiled and completely concretely, that they are still going after the movers and shakers in Iran, essentially, the president saying-- well, he had called Mojtaba incompetent in Politico. And he also said that he wanted to have a role in finding and appointing the new leader. That clearly didn't happen. And so do you get a sense that Mojtaba Khamenei already sort of has a target on his back?

Completely. Not only does he have a target on the back, some may even argue that he is a dead man walking. We have to understand, Israel and the US have incredible intelligence on the ground inside Iran. They were able to kill the supreme leader on the very first day of the war-- tells you something about the level of intelligence that is available to them. Whether that's the case in this moment, it's hard to say. But they have been-- the US and Israel have been incredibly successful in taking out the top leadership of Iran, not just during this war that we've seen now, which is now over a week long, but also last year during the Twelve-Day War with Israel. What I would say, though, is the one thing-- I think, a key thing we need to look at in this moment and wait for is what Mojtaba Khamenei says in his first address and his first speech. If he comes out and gives a blazing anti-American, anti-Israel speech which offers no olive branches, which offers no discussion of dialogue, diplomacy, you name it, I think this conflict, as we've been saying, is only going to accelerate. And so we really need to hear what he has to say. What we know of him-- again, this is not a man who's spoken in public before. This is not a man who's held a public office before. It'll be interesting to see how he plays this public role, although he's witnessed it up first with his father-- up close, I should say, with his father. We don't know how he's going to wield his public persona. Again. What he says will matter. If he offers President Trump, even just the hint of an off-ramp, that could be something that may spell the beginning of some sort of diplomacy, some sort of off-ramp to this conflict. But if he comes out and is harsh, stark, strident, anti-American, anti-Israeli, I suspect that he will be targeted in a very serious way by US and Israeli forces. And the thing is, when we look at what we know about Mojtaba, this is not somebody who is considered a reformer. This is somebody who is considered a true believer in his father's view of Iran. And his father's view of Iran is well documented. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has presided over a regime which has ruthlessly and brutally oppressed its own people time and time again. Just in January, as we know, many thousands of people were killed for going out to the streets demanding change. That is something that Mojtaba Khamenei witnessed time and again at his father's knee. And for many Iranians tonight, looking at this decision, looking at his ascension to the very top of Iran's leadership structure, the fear is that he is going to be somebody who is going to perhaps not only be just as cruel as his father, but potentially even crueler.

You had mentioned whether his installation as supreme leader and whether his first comments could potentially offer President Trump some kind of off-ramp for this conflict. We know the goals and the objectives of the administration has outlined. They are to destroy Iranian offensive missiles, annihilate its navy, prevent it from having a nuclear weapon, and ensure the regime can't support, quote, "terrorist armies outside its borders." The president has given, and other people in his administration have given, various timelines for how long this conflict could, from two weeks to four to six, basically until these objectives are met. Do you see any potential off-ramp being taken when the administration so far as posturing that they are in it not necessarily in the long run, but at least until these objectives are met?

Yeah, I think so. I think we have to acknowledge that, when it comes to the military objectives that the US and Israel jointly have, much of them have been achieved. Iran's navy has been badly damaged, if not decimated. Iran's capability to carry out airstrikes, at least conventionally, with its fighter jets, has essentially collapsed. While it's still able to use its Shahed drones fairly effectively, certainly across the Gulf, militarily, it has been degraded very seriously. The objectives, at least from the military point of view, are being met in a very serious and fundamental way. But again, it is the personality component that I think is going to be one of the hardest things for the president to get past. He's also called for the complete collapse of the regime. He's also called for regime change. He's called on the Iranian people-- President Trump, that is-- to rise up and to fight for new leadership. This regime remains intact because while we've talked about the US and Israel's objectives here, the Iranian leadership's objective, the Iranian regime's objective is just a singular objective, and that is survival. And so far, they have achieved that objective. And more importantly, their ability to select a supreme leader using this formalized process that was put into place after the death of the very first Ayatollah, Ruhollah Khomeini, that process was able to work, which again sends signals to the Iranian people, all 90 million of them, that the system, while battered and bruised, is still intact. But it also says to them, we can still crush any form of dissent if you try. And that is something very scary for many Iranians who want change, who are under bombardment and are hoping for a brighter future, are hoping for a more free Iran. And with the selection of Mojtaba to Khamenei to be the next Supreme leader, many Iranians tonight are no doubt looking at that and thinking not much of their life is going to improve. If anything, it's going to become materially far worse.