Iran picks new supreme leader but withholds identity as war intensifies

Israel hits Tehran oil facilities, Netanyahu vows 'surprises' in next phase of conflict

Iran picked a new supreme leader and escalated attacks on the ninth day of the war, hitting a water desalination plant in Bahrain, while Israel struck major fuel depots in Tehran and threatened the Islamic Republic’s power grid. Tehran didn’t disclose the identity of the new leader.

 

Meanwhile, Israel’s military threatened to kill any replacement for Khamenei, while US President Donald Trump said the war might only end once Iran's military and rulers had been wiped out.

 

Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammad Mehdi Mirbaqeri told the Mehr news agency a majority consensus over the successor has more or less been reached. Another member of the council, Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, said in a video that a candidate had been selected based on Khamenei’s guidance that Iran’s top leader should be “hated by the enemy”.

 

 

Two Iranian sources told Reuters last week that the clear favourite was Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei.

 

The attacks overnight into Sunday came as Arab states across the Persian Gulf continued to face incoming missiles and drones from Iran, which said it had the capacity to sustain the war for months. Trump said the US will consider widening its strikes on the Islamic Republic in a conflict that’s upended energy markets.

 

The US and Israel have discussed sending special forces into Iran to secure its stockpile of highly enriched uranium at a later stage of the war, Axios reported, citing four officials. Asked on Saturday about sending ground troops to secure nuclear sites, Trump said it was something they could do “later on.”

 

The governments of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain reported Iranian drone attacks in their countries on Saturday and early Sunday, with a huge fire engulfing a government office block in Kuwait. Kuwait’s interior ministry said two of its officers were killed “while performing duties”, while the UAE said four migrant workers had died in Iranian attacks there so far. Bahrain said on Sunday that an Iranian drone attack had caused “material damage” to a desalination plant, though the country’s electricity and water authority said the strike had not disrupted water supplies. 

 

The Iranian strike on Bahrain came after Tehran accused the US of hitting a desalination plant on its Qeshm Island, disrupting water supplies in 30 villages. 

 

Persian Gulf countries rely on the civilian infrastructure for most of their fresh drinking water, and sustained attacks could compound the impact of a war that’s already rattled the stability of financial hubs in the region.

 

Iran President Masoud Pezeshkian said he had instructed the military not to attack any nation that isn’t striking the Islamic Republic and apologised to neighbouring countries.  Trump said the remarks amounted to a surrender, but Tehran pressed ahead with strikes. Saudi Arabia has told Tehran that continued Iranian attacks on the kingdom and its energy sector could push Riyadh to respond in kind, people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

 

Meanwhile, At least four people were killed when an Israeli strike hit an apartment in the Ramada hotel building in central Beirut early on Sunday, with Israel saying it targeted Iranian commanders operating in the Lebanese capital. Israeli military also said that two soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon on Sunday. They are the first military fatalities since the start of the war with Iran last week.