Khamenei’s hardline son named as Iran’s supreme leader
Iran appointed Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader to replace his father Ali Khamenei, signaling that conservatives remain firmly in office as a week-long US-Israeli war with Iran causes oil prices to soar.
As the war entered its 10th day and new missile and drone attacks echoed in the Middle East, Iranian institutions and politicians, from the foreign ministry to lawmakers, made statements expressing their loyalty to the country’s new religious leader.
In the statement made by the defense council, it was said: “We will obey the Commander-in-Chief until the last drop of our blood.”
Senior cleric Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani said Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment is “a salve to the spiritual suffering of our people and an emphasis on the need to continue the bright path of the late Imam (senior Khamenei).”
Mojtaba’s father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of the first attacks on Iran more than a week ago.
The show of solidarity towards Mojtaba comes after US President Donald Trump previously rejected him as a candidate for Iran’s new supreme leader and said Israel would target whoever leads Iran.
Mojtaba, a cleric with influence within Iran’s security forces and extensive business networks under his father’s rule, was seen as the frontrunner heading into Sunday’s vote by the Assembly of Experts, a group of 88 clerics tasked with choosing Ali Khamenei’s successor.
Trump said Sunday that Washington should have a say in the election.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us, he can’t stay in office for long,” he told ABC News, adding that ending the war would be a “joint” decision with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In an interview with the Times of Israel after the new religious leader was named, Trump refused to answer, saying only “we’ll see what happens.”
The Israeli military said on Monday it had launched a wave of attacks in central Iran and hit infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah militants in Beirut.
Police sources said Iran and its proxies have launched attacks across the region, with rocket and drone strikes targeting the US diplomatic facility near Baghdad’s international airport, which was intercepted by the C-RAM defense system.
Security sources stated that a drone strike targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, while Saudi officials reported that a drone was captured near the Jawf region.
Thick smoke was seen rising from the direction of the BAPCO oil refinery in Bahrain after the government said “an Iranian drone strike struck the area, causing injuries and damage,” according to a Reuters witness.
A seventh American has died from wounds sustained during Iran’s first counterstrike a week ago, the US military said, a day after Trump presided over the extradition to the US of the remains of six other slain people.
The Israeli army said on Sunday that two of its soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon; It was the first death among soldiers since Israel-Hezbollah hostilities resumed last week as Israel intensified air strikes on Lebanon.
At least four people were killed in an Israeli attack on an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut early Sunday.
According to Iran’s ambassador to the UN, US-Israeli strikes have killed at least 1,332 Iranian civilians and injured thousands more.
U.S. crude oil futures rose more than 20 percent in early trading Monday, reaching their highest level since July 2022. Major oil producers in the Middle East have cut off supply because they cannot safely send shipments through the Strait of Hormuz to refineries around the world.
The war led oil and gas exporters from Qatar to Iraq to halt production; Kuwait announced production cuts over the weekend, and analysts predict that the UAE and Saudi Arabia will soon cut production as their oil reserves are depleted.
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