A country divided: state media show Mojtaba supporters as Iranians online fear repression

State media showed large crowds gathering in Tehran’s Enghelab Square around midday to chant allegiance to Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, carrying banners with the face of the country’s slain leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and a new portrait of his son.

“At around midday, even as airstrikes hit several parts of the capital, large crowds gathered in Tehran’s famous Enghelab Square to chant their allegiance to Iran’s new supreme leader”

The Guardian

Pro-regime footage from several cities showed pledges of loyalty and chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" as security forces looked on.

The Guardian

Those images contrasted with scenes nine days earlier when people were seen celebrating the assassination in a joint US-Israeli strike of Ali Khamenei.

Mojtaba, 56, has kept a low profile but has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has been accused of leading the IRGC’s volunteer militia, the Basij.

He has rarely appeared in public and had not addressed the nation.

The Guardian

State media reported the 28 February strike that killed his father also killed several other family members, including Mojtaba's wife and son.

There are rumours Mojtaba was wounded.

Young Iranians quoted in the piece expressed fear that his rule will be more repressive.

Nima, 21, a student in Mashhad, said Mojtaba is 'way more of a hardliner than his father' and expected the atmosphere to 'become more repressive and security-driven under him'.

A national crackdown has continued despite the war and the regime’s internet blackout, though some Iranians have sent texts abroad.

“At around midday, even as airstrikes hit several parts of the capital, large crowds gathered in Tehran’s famous Enghelab Square to chant their allegiance to Iran’s new supreme leader”

The Guardian

The prosecutor general warned Iranians outside Iran that any cooperation deemed to be with the US and Israel could lead to confiscation of property and hanging.

Critics and activists said the appointment was intended to signal to Donald Trump that the regime 'won’t back down'.

Others mocked Mojtaba as a 'crown prince' and warned the move could be disastrous, and the article notes some names have been changed.