Israel warns it may target Iran’s next supreme leader

08 Mar 2026 15:58

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Middle East
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Israel warns it may target Iran’s next supreme leader

The continuing attacks haven't stopped Tehran from seeking a successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. | Majid Saeedi/Getty Images

The Israeli military warned it may target both the successor to Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and those involved in choosing the new leader, News.Az reports, citing Politico.

The statement was posted in Farsi on X as the clerical assembly responsible for the selection reportedly reached a decision on Sunday.

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Israel justified the attacks as a preemptive strike to protect itself. U.S. President Donald Trump, after days of mixed signals from the White House on the justifications and aims of the war, said on Friday that the ultimate goal is “unconditional surrender” by the Islamic Republic’s leaders.

The continuing attacks haven’t stopped Tehran from seeking a successor to Khamenei. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported on Sunday that Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body tasked with selecting the next leader, had reached a decision, although the name hasn’t been announced yet.

“The vote to appoint the leader has taken place and the leader has been chosen,” Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, was quoted as saying by Mehr. He said the secretariat of the body will announce the name later.

Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, the head of the assembly’s secretariat, will be responsible for ⁠announcing the decision. Among the top criteria for the next leader is that they should “be hated by the enemy,” according to a member of the selection panel, Reuters reported.

The assembly’s vote came even as the war in Iran continued to spill into the wider Persian Gulf region, as Tehran targeted U.S. and Israeli military bases across the Middle East with drone and missile attacks. Iran on Sunday also hit fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport and damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain, AFP reported.

Iran’s President Massoud Pezeshkian on Saturday apologized to neighboring countries for launching attacks on their soil where U.S. military bases are located. A few hours later, the Iranian judiciary chief said strikes would continue in Gulf countries that are “at the disposal of the enemy.”

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kuwait have all reported attacks.

Trump took to his own social media platform, Truth Social, to claim credit for Pezeshkian’s apology, adding that “Iran will be hit very hard!”

News.Az

By Salman Rahimli