NEW IRAN SUPREME LEADER HAS BEEN SELECTED OFFICIALS SAY
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Iranian officials have chosen the next supreme leader to replace Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed Feb. 28 in the U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran, a senior Iranian cleric said Sunday without naming the person. Overnight, Israeli forces expanded their attacks to Iran’s energy infrastructure, setting fuel depots ablaze in Tehran, and a strike on a hotel in central Beirut brought the war with Hezbollah to the middle of the Lebanese capital.
“The election regarding the leadership has been held and the leader has been determined,” said Ayatollah Ahmad Alam al-Hoda, a senior member of the deciding body — known as the Assembly of Experts — according to Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency. A public announcement is expected.
There had been intense speculation that the assembly would choose one of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba Khamenei. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been pushing his candidacy but had encountered resistance from other power brokers, including Ali Larijani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, a Western security official told The Washington Post. It is unclear how many figures from Khamenei’s inner circle have been killed in the expanding U.S.-Israeli operation.
The announcement came just hours after the Israel Defense Forces warned ahead of the Assembly of Experts meeting that “Israel will continue to follow any successor and anyone who seeks to appoint a successor,” warning that it would “not hesitate to target” any of the dozens of members participating in the meeting.
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