Israel vows to kill next supreme leader, Starmer-Trump feud widens, oil prices rise
Updated ,first published
London: Israel has vowed to eliminate Iran’s next religious leader as it launched a new wave of “large-scale attacks” on Tehran on the fifth day of the war and intensified attacks on targets in Lebanon.
Despite its losses so far in the air war, Iran is preparing for a long campaign against the United States and Israel; Senior clerics are tipping off that they will nominate hard-line Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new religious leader.
While Israel suffered its first serious military loss in the conflict so far, as reports emerged that Iran shot down one of its F-35 warplanes over Tehran, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz announced that Iran’s next leader, whoever he is, will be the target.
“Any leader appointed by the Iranian terrorist regime to continue and lead its plan to destroy Israel, threaten the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and oppress the Iranian people will be a target for destruction,” Katz wrote on social media.
Israeli forces hit the building in Qom where the Assembly of Experts normally elects the supreme leader on Tuesday, targeting clerics at the symbolic center of their force, but Iran’s decision seems likely to be made in an online meeting.
Khamenei, 86, who was killed along with other senior leaders in the attacks that started the war on Saturday, will be bid farewell at a ceremony late Wednesday, Tehran time. This is a possible factor in the timing of Israel’s new “wave of comprehensive attacks” on the capital.
The US claims to have been successful in disrupting Iran’s ability to launch missiles and drones in the Middle East after striking nearly 2,000 Iranian targets.
The massive bombing campaign, backed by 50,000 US personnel, aims to end chaos in the region at a time when a shipping crisis has deepened fears about rising oil prices, airlines are canceling flights and countries are trying to thwart Iran’s drones and ballistic missiles.
The war is estimated to have killed at least 1,000 civilians in Iran since Saturday, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency in the United States, as thousands attended the funeral for students killed in the attack on the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, southern Iran. The death toll at the school currently stands at 108 students, according to the Iranian Red Crescent, but access to the site is limited to verify estimates.
US President Donald Trump has expressed confidence in winning the war but has sent more conflicting messages about the war’s goal and duration, saying one option is to accept a different leader at the top of Iran’s government.
“I think the worst case scenario is that we do this and then someone takes over who is just as bad as the last person, right? That could happen,” he told reporters at the White House.
“So we want to see someone there to bring it back to the people.”
Trump turned to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a key ally, in an extraordinary dispute between the two governments over the cause and timing of the war after the British leader refused to allow US forces to use the Diego Garcia base in the Indian Ocean and Fairford airport in England.
“This is not Winston Churchill we’re dealing with,” Trump said of Starmer, dismissing the prime minister by comparing him to Britain’s wartime champion.
This statement follows Starmer’s statement in the UK parliament on Monday that he could not support military action without a “workable, considered plan”.
Trump also threatened to halt trade with Spain after its prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, condemned the “unjust, dangerous military intervention” against Iran and said it was a violation of international law.
Despite the risk of economic friction with Trump, French President Emmanuel said attacks on Iran were “beyond international law” and also ordered French forces to eliminate Iranian threats as missile and drone attacks increased in the region.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who met Trump at the White House on Tuesday (Wednesday morning AEDT), took a more diplomatic approach, saying the attacks were “not without risks” but that political change in Iran would be positive for the Iranian people.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry said on Tuesday (Beirut time) that Israeli attacks had killed at least 50 people and injured 335 since the latest tensions began.
Israel killed 10 people in attacks on civilians, including nine in Iran’s missile attack on a synagogue in Beit Shemesh, near Jerusalem, on March 1. The United States confirmed the deaths of six members of its military forces.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is pressing for an end to the conflict after his office warned of the “proliferation of new fronts” in the Middle East.
“We are also witnessing increasing numbers of civilian casualties and serious humanitarian impacts on the well-being of people in the region,” a spokesman for Guterres said.
While Trump and his senior leaders said they launched the attack on Saturday because Iran posed a nuclear threat and thus justified US self-defense, the head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, told CNN that Iran was days or weeks away from acquiring nuclear weapons and did not pose an imminent threat.
The war continues to be marred by disagreement over the justification of U.S. and Israeli strikes as the best way to halt Iran’s nuclear ambitions and curb its support for terrorist groups in the region.
US admiral Brad Cooper, the Central Command commander who led the attacks, said Iran’s air defenses were badly broken, its navy had no operational ships left in key waterways after the sinking of the 17th, and more than 2,000 Iranian targets had been hit.
“My overall operational assessment is that we are ahead of our game plan,” he said in a video briefing. “Simply put, we focused on shooting things that could hit us.”
However, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it has “full control” of the Strait of Hormuz and can stop ships that want to pass through the strategic waterway, thus continuing the supply shortage that has led to an increase in oil prices.
Trump responded by saying the US Navy could escort oil tankers across the Bosphorus.
Airlines are struggling to cope with the impact of the air war, canceling more than 20,000 flights, while governments are trying to get citizens home with emergency flights.
with wires
David Crowe is the European correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect with: X or email.
