Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, is the third person to lead the Islamic Republic and the first example of hereditary succession since the overthrow of the Pahlavi monarchy in the 1979 revolution. In other words, it appears that Iran overthrew a monarchy 47 years ago to institute a... monarchy.

Iran's Assembly of Experts elected the country's next supreme leader in a "decisive vote," according to Fars. The vote took place hours before the result was made public. 

The younger Khamenei was born in the holy city of Mashhad in Iran's northeast in 1969 as the family's second-oldest son. He fought briefly in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war that consolidated his father's rise to power and became a cleric, studying at Iran's main religious seminary city of Qom, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

The clip below shows Mojtaba Khamenei announced as Iran's new Supreme Leader in Tehran's Vanak Square.

He keeps a relatively low public profile, but is seen as close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the military force that leads Iran's missile program and regional alliances with militias, and which has swelled to control as much as 40% of Iran's economy.

Immediately after the official announcement, the IRGC said it backed and pledged obedience to the new Supreme Leader.

During alleged interference in the country's 2009 elections that sparked widespread street protests, the opposition accused Mojtaba of being involved.

Bloomberg reported in January that he oversees a sprawling investment empire stretching from Tehran to Dubai and Frankfurt. He didn't respond to requests for comment at the time.

Update(1555ET): The United States and Israel are boasting of having effectively achieved total air superiority over Iran's skies, but this presents yet more questions as to what the end-game will be. The allies have as one key goal securing Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium - most of which may be buried deep under a destroyed nuclear site at Isfahan (taken out during the June war) - but then the conundrum remains... how?

Axios reports on one plan which many see as but a gateway to introduction of US ground troops - a prospect President Trump has repeatedly said won't happen and which would be deeply unpopular among the American public. "The U.S. and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, according to four sources with knowledge of the discussions," the report says.