Iran fired missiles at Israel and Gulf nations early Monday after the Islamic Republic named Mojtaba Khamenei its new leader to succeed his late father, despite threats by the United States and Israel to target him next.
Nine days after US-Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Middle East into war, Iranian clerics picked the country’s third supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Israel launched a new wave of strikes, this time targeting infrastructure in central Iran, as the expanding war sent stocks plunging and crude prices surging 30 per cent on supply disruption fears.
Saudi Arabia intercepted drones headed for an eastern oil field, while the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait reported missile attacks, and Bahrain said sirens were activated.
Khamenei’s appointment was announced on Iranian state television, with the presenter solemnly reading a statement from the 88-member Assembly of Experts next to a picture of the new 56-year-old leader.
Khamenei “is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts”, the statement said.
It said the clerical body “did not hesitate for a minute” in choosing a new leader despite “the brutal aggression of the criminal America and the evil Zionist regime.”
State media then showed a projectile said to be launched at Israel bearing the slogan, “At Your Command, Sayyid Mojtaba”, using an Islamic honorific.
The war came weeks after Iranian security forces crushed nationwide protests against the government, killing thousands. The younger Khamenei is considered a fellow hardliner who will pursue his father’s rejection of dissent.
US President Donald Trump had previously dismissed the Mojtaba Khamenei as a “lightweight,” and insisted Sunday again that he should have a say in appointing a new leader.
“If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long,” he told ABC News before the announcement was made.
Israel’s defence minister warned last week that the new supreme leader would become “a target”, while the military vowed to go after any successor.
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