* US-Israeli missile strike killed his father, mother, and wife and injured him
* **widely viewed as less capable but more radical than his father**
* trained as a cleric but was a weak student
* notably less well educated and well read than his father, who was a voracious reader of even Western books
* not well traveled. besides Saudi Arabia for religious visits, the only other country he’s traveled to is the UK for medical treatment
* his father was a revolutionary and gifted orator who survived imprisonment by the shah. Mojtaba is a corrupt princeling who amassed a fortune of $150m
* of those in his inner circle, Mojtaba has the longest history with Hossein Taeb, former chief of IRGC intelligence. as you can probably guess, not a great guy.
* Taeb is viewed as a bridge between clerical establishment and IRGC. thought to have engineered Mojtaba’s ascent via his influence over the Assembly of Experts
* from one well-connected former hostage: both Mojtaba and Taeb support hostage diplomacy and the practice is unlikely to end while they are in power
* “They’ve just killed his family,” the source in Tehran said. “He’s bloodthirsty now.”
!ping middle-east&foreign-policy
sleepyrivertroll on
Who could have seen this coming?
Oh wait, it was everyone. This is the monkey with their hand stuck in a coconut.
2 Comments
first proper profile on Mojtaba that I’ve seen:
* US-Israeli missile strike killed his father, mother, and wife and injured him
* **widely viewed as less capable but more radical than his father**
* trained as a cleric but was a weak student
* notably less well educated and well read than his father, who was a voracious reader of even Western books
* not well traveled. besides Saudi Arabia for religious visits, the only other country he’s traveled to is the UK for medical treatment
* his father was a revolutionary and gifted orator who survived imprisonment by the shah. Mojtaba is a corrupt princeling who amassed a fortune of $150m
* of those in his inner circle, Mojtaba has the longest history with Hossein Taeb, former chief of IRGC intelligence. as you can probably guess, not a great guy.
* Taeb is viewed as a bridge between clerical establishment and IRGC. thought to have engineered Mojtaba’s ascent via his influence over the Assembly of Experts
* from one well-connected former hostage: both Mojtaba and Taeb support hostage diplomacy and the practice is unlikely to end while they are in power
* “They’ve just killed his family,” the source in Tehran said. “He’s bloodthirsty now.”
!ping middle-east&foreign-policy
Who could have seen this coming?
Oh wait, it was everyone. This is the monkey with their hand stuck in a coconut.