Iranian state TV on Sunday said Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the country’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor.

He had long been considered a contender, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answers to the supreme leader, and now the younger Khamenei will have the central say in war strategy.