Iranian supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, appointed after a career entirely out of the spotlight as a behind-the-scenes figure, faces the challenge of occupying a role incarnated by his father for most of the Islamic republic's existence. Mojtaba Khamenei was barely known to Iranians when he was named shortly after the killing of his father and longstanding supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who had been in the post-for-life since 1989, in a US-Israeli airstrike at the start of the Middle East war.

Mojtaba Khamenei was crowned supreme leader after his father, Ali Khamenei, was assassinated by the US and Israel in the first wave of strikes on Iran. | World News

Iran's new supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since being appointed, his health condition is a mystery, and it's unclear how much power he wields.