A leader who has never been fully tested takes the helm in Iran when its theocracy faces its greatest test in five decades.
Continuity and connections have pulled Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to the top after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the first salvos of this war.
But Iran's third supreme leader since its 1979 revolution takes charge as the Islamic Republic confronts an existential battle.
Large crowds, the foot soldiers of the revolution, took to the streets immediately to shout "Allahu Akbar" - "God is greatest" - to celebrate his selection by the Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 Shia Muslim clerics.
All security forces pledged to serve their new commander-in-chief until their "last drop of blood".
