Iran on Sunday signaled that it has effectively selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as his successor, as tensions escalated with overnight strikes by Israel on fuel depots in Tehran, as reported by Reuters.
“The name of Khamenei will continue,” said Ayatollah Hosseinali Eshkevari, a member of the clerical council charged with electing a new leader, in a video published in Iranian media, Reuters reported.
“The vote has been cast and will be announced soon,” Eshkevari said, without providing further details.
The council’s secretary, Hosseini Bushehri, would announce the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – who was killed earlier in the conflict – Ahmad Alamolhoda, another cleric, told state media, as reported by Reuters.
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday Washington should have a say in the selection. “If he doesn’t get approval from us he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News.
Israel stated that it continues to target senior Iranian officials, including Abolqasem Babaian, who had recently been appointed head of the supreme leader’s military office and was killed in a strike on Saturday.
Two Iranian sources told Reuters last week that Mojtaba Khamenei, who built influence inside Iran’s security forces and vast business networks under his father, remained the clear favourite. Choosing him would signal that hardliners remain firmly in charge.
Donald Trump has defended the largest US military operation in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion by claiming that Iran posed an imminent threat to the United States, though he has not presented evidence to support this. He also stated that Iran was nearing the capability to develop a nuclear weapon, Reuters reported.
According to Axios, US and Israeli officials have discussed the possibility of deploying special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the conflict. When asked on Saturday about sending ground troops to protect nuclear sites, Trump said such action would only occur if the Iranian forces were “so decimated that they wouldn’t be able to fight at the ground level.”
The ongoing US–Israeli attacks have, according to Iran’s UN ambassador, killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and injured thousands more.
(With inputs from Reuters)
