Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei as new supreme leader
Iran on Monday nominated Mojtaba Khamenei as the successor to his father Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain tightly entrenched in power.
Mojtaba, a cleric with sway within Iran’s security forces and extensive business networks controlled by his father, had been seen as a front-runner ahead of Sunday’s vote by the Assembly of Experts, a group of 88 clerics who choose Ali Khamenei’s successor.
“By a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said the statement issued soon after midnight local time.
That position gives Mojtaba final say in all state matters in the Islamic Republic.
The White House did not immediately return a request for comment about the announcement of Iran’s new supreme leader.
The appointment of Mojtaba, who is considered close to former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013), will likely anger US President Donald Trump, who on Sunday said Washington should have a say on the selection. “If he doesn’t get buy-in from us, he’s not going to be there long,” he told ABC News. Israel, in advance of the announcement, threatened to strike whomever was selected.
The father of Mojtaba, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of the first strikes that Iran launched against the country over a week ago.
The US military said on Sunday that a seventh American had died as a result of injuries suffered during an initial counter-attack by Iran over a week ago, one day after Trump oversaw the return of the remains of six others to the United States.
Iran’s UN ambassador says US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and injured thousands
Defiance from Tehran
Iranian state media reported that Iran’s armed forces leadership had sworn allegiance to Mojtaba Khamenei, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement it was prepared to follow the new supreme leader.
The Assembly of Experts, which met on Sunday to elect a new supreme leader despite threats that the body would be targeted, the Iranian security chief, Ali Larijani, said afterward on state television.
Under the sensitive conditions of today, Mojtaba Khamenei could manage and conduct the country, said Larijani who urged it to unite around it.
The announcement followed defiance from Tehran, despite Trump demanding an “unconditional surrender”. Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, said earlier that Tehran was not looking for a ceasefire to the war and would retaliate against aggressors.
Israel also struck senior Iranian figures, like Abolqasem Babaian, recently named head of the military office of the supreme leader, whom it said was killed in a strike on Saturday.
As fighting intensified on Sunday, day nine of the United States’ and Israel’s campaign against Iran, thick plumes of black smoke were hanging over Tehran, residents said, after attacks on oil storage facilities had illuminated the night sky with orange flames.
'Dangerous new phase'
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Esmaeil Baghaei, said the large-scale attack constituted a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and was a war crime.
“With the bombing of fuel depots, the aggressors are emitting harmful materials and toxic substances into the air,” he wrote.
An Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani, told reporters that they were depots used to fuel Iran’s war effort, including the production or storage of propellant for ballistic missiles. “They are a lawful military target,” he said.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his government would continue the offensive and hit Iran’s rulers “without mercy”
“We have a plan that is well organised and has many surprises to change the regime and bring everything back,” he said.
Trump told reporters on Air Force One that he was not seeking negotiations to settle the conflict, which has pushed global energy prices higher and thrown business into disarray while snarling air travel.
“At some point, I don’t believe there’s going to be anyone left to say, ‘We surrender,’” he added.
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