Israel strikes Iran's Assembly where clerics met to pick successor

By Eltaf Najafizada and Paul Wallace 

Israel’s military struck a building where Iranian clerics were meeting to elect a successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Israel’s Kan News reported, citing a senior Israeli official.

Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency said the site in the city of Qom, southwest of Tehran, was attacked but wasn’t in use at the time. 

 

Israel was likely targeting the Assembly of Experts, a Shia clerical body tasked with electing a supreme leader after Khamenei was killed in Israeli and US strikes on Saturday.

 

Following the death of Khamenei, who ruled over the Islamic Republic for more than three decades, a temporary leadership council comprising President Masoud Pezeshkian, senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi and the head of the judiciary, has taken over leader duties until a successor is appointed.

 

 

Speculation about who that might be often centers on Khamenei’s second-eldest son, Mojtaba, who Iranian media have reported is alive.

 

The Islamic Republic’s Foreign Minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Sunday said a new supreme leader could be chosen within days.