The Ayatollah Is Dead. Long Live The Ayatollah (S01E22)

badlands podcast by borzou daragahi · Mar 9, 2026 · 45m

Monday, March 9, 2026, Istanbul

We don’t know a lot about Mujataba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s former leader, Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a US and Israeli airstrike on Feb. 28.

What we do know is pretty ominous.

We know that he lost his wife, mother, and son in that same airstrike that killed his father.

We know that within Iran’s constellation of political factions he has long been known as a hardliner, and very close to the Revolutionary Guard. He served in the guard as a young man during the final years of the Iran-Iraq war.

We know that Donald Trump publicly ruled him out as the…