Who will be Iran's next supreme leader? One name stands out.

The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the early hours of the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran has raised a simple but enormously consequential question: Who will replace him? In:

The assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the early hours of the U.S. and Israel's war on Iran has raised a simple but enormously consequential question: Who will replace him?

For nearly four decades, Khamenei sat atop Iran's complex power structure, serving not just as the country's highest religious authority but also as its ultimate political decision-maker. His killing at the sprawling complex that housed his offices and residence in Tehran has created a vacuum in a system designed above all to prevent exactly that kind of instability.

Formally, the decision now rests with Iran's Assembly of Experts, the powerful clerical body tasked with selecting the country's supreme leader. In practice, however, the outcome will almost certainly emerge from a much smaller circle: senior clerics, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the security establishment that has long underpinned the Islamic Republic's power structure.

Several names have already surfaced. But one stands out.

The leading contender is Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader's second son.