Iran says it has chosen new supreme leader as new wave of strikes pound the Gulf

Iran has elected a new supreme leader following a meeting of its Assembly of Experts, a senior Iranian official has said.

Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the panel, told state media that a leader had been chosen after an election – without naming who had been selected.

It marks a potentially significant development as the war between Iran and the US and Israel entered its ninth day. Iran’s previous leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an Israeli strike last Saturday.

President Donald Trump has previously said that he wanted to personally select Iran’s new leader in the event that American strikes obliterate the regime.

According to the Guardian, the assembly disagree on how to announce the new leader, with some members believing it can be announced and other believing another session is required before it is made public.

The Israeli ​military has also warned it would pursue every successor, which is also a reason why no announcement has been made yet.

In ​a post on ​X in Farsi, the Israeli military, also said it would pursue every ​person who seeks ​to appoint a successor to ‌Khamenei, ⁠referring to the clerical body charged with choosing the next leader.

Israel on Sunday struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and oil storage facilities in Tehran as the war in the Middle East keeps escalating, and prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said there would “many surprises” for the next phase of the conflict.

Iran also hit a desalination plant in Bahrain. Earlier on Sunday, Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said a US airstrike damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, warning that in doing so “the US set this precedent, not Iran.”

An Israeli attack on oil storage sites in Tehran sent up pillars of fire that could be seen in Associated Press video as a glow against the Saturday night sky. It appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility has been targeted in the war.

The war, which erupted on 28 February after joint US-Israeli strikes hit Iran, has so far killed at least 1,230 people in the Islamic Republic, more than 300 in Lebanon and around a dozen in Israel, according to officials.

More to follow…