Iran’s New Supreme Leader: A New Era for the Country

Iran's Assembly of Experts has reached a decision on selecting a new supreme leader, according to Mohsen Heydari, a member of the selection body. The name of the chosen candidate has not been immediately announced.

The Israeli military has warned that it would target any figure chosen to replace Ali Khamenei, who was killed in joint US-Israeli strikes on the first day of the war with Iran. The Israeli military stated that it would pursue every successor of Iran's late supreme leader.

In recent days, Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, emerged as an early frontrunner. However, his appointment is far from certain as critics would view the move as entrenching a regime accused by rights groups of killing at least 7,000 people in recent months.

The recent attacks on Gulf states appear to highlight a clash within Iran's leadership, contradicting remarks made on Saturday by the president, Masoud Pezeshkian, who apologised to countries on the Arabian peninsula and suggested strikes against them would end, provided their airspace and US bases were not used against Iran.

Overnight, US and Israeli strikes hit five oil facilities around Tehran, an Iranian official said, adding that the sites were damaged but the resulting fires were brought under control. Explosions in the capital's nearby city of Karaj reverberated across the region, and left the area under smoke.

The news agency Axios reported that the US and Israel had discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, according to four sources with knowledge of the discussions.