The New York Times, citing officials familiar with the assessment, reports US
intelligence now judges Iran’s new supreme leader Mujtaba more intent on
developing nuclear weapons than his father, former supreme leader Ali Khamenei,
who had vowed not to pursue them. Mujtaba has not publicly called for nuclear
arms, but US agencies assess that after US‑Israeli strikes that killed several
former Iranian leaders, Mujtaba and the hard‑line government that followed
harbor ambitions to develop advanced nuclear weapons. Officials say if a
US‑Israel war makes Tehran more likely, rather than less likely, to seek nuclear
arms, that would be another serious consequence of Khamenei’s assassination and
the Trump administration’s earlier regime‑change efforts.
