Tehran (AFP) – Iran was preparing to name a successor to its slain supreme leader on Sunday, after US-backed Israeli strikes destroyed fuel depots in Tehran, sparking blazes that covered the city in acrid smoke. Nine days after US-Israeli strikes on his compound killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Middle East into war, Iran’s Assembly of Experts met privately and chose their next leader, members of the body said. The clerics did not say who had been selected, only that a name would be announced soon. Some suggested Khamenei’s 56-year-old son Mojtaba Khamenei would succeed his father.
US President Donald Trump had demanded a say in the nomination, while Israel’s military warned any successor that “we will not hesitate to target you”. But Tehran’s top diplomat said Sunday that the decision was Iran’s alone, adding it would “allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs”. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press”, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi went on to demand Trump “apologize to the people of the region and the Iranian people for the killings and destruction”. The younger Khamenei is regarded as a conservative figure, notably because of his ties with the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Islamic Republic’s military.
Israel’s reach was underlined by two new operations overnight — strikes against fuel dumps in and around Tehran and an attack on a hotel in the heart of Lebanon’s capital Beirut that targeted suspected Iranian commanders. Warplanes hit five oil facilities in and around the Iranian capital, killing at least four people, according to a state oil executive. Tehran’s governor told the IRNA news agency that fuel distribution had been “temporarily interrupted” in the capital. A dark haze hung over the city of 10 million people, blocking out the sun, and the smell of burning fuel lingered in the air. Authorities warned the fumes could be toxic and urged citizens to stay indoors, but many windows were blown out by the force of the blasts.
“The blaze has been burning for more than 12 hours, the air has become unbreathable. I can’t even go out to do the daily shopping,” said one 35-year-old from Tehran. “At first, I supported this war. After Khamenei’s death, I celebrated with my friends: we drank wine and we danced. But since yesterday… people say there’s not even any gasoline left at the gas stations,” she said in a text message to Europe. As the war extended into its ninth day, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they had enough supplies to continue their drone and missile war over the Middle East for up to six months. Several blasts were heard over Israel’s commercial hub Tel Aviv after the Israeli military said it had detected a salvo of missiles from Iran. The Magen David Adom emergency services said six people were wounded in central Israel.
Trump again refused to rule out sending American ground troops into Iran, but continued to insist that the war was all but won despite the ongoing Iranian missile and drone strikes. Guards spokesman Ali Mohammad Naini said Iran had so far used only first- and second-generation missiles, but would use “advanced and less-used long-range missiles” in the coming days. Saudi Arabia intercepted a wave of drones headed for targets including the diplomatic quarter in its capital Riyadh, Kuwait said an attack hit fuel tanks at its international airport, and Bahrain reported a water desalination plant had been damaged. Iran’s health ministry said Sunday that at least 1,200 civilians had been killed and around 10,000 wounded — figures AFP could not independently verify. Lebanon’s health minister said at least 394 people had been killed in Israeli air strikes since Lebanon was dragged into the war a week ago, including 83 children and 42 women. Two Israeli soldiers have been killed during the fighting in southern Lebanon, the military said.
Trump, meanwhile, attended the return of the bodies of six American service members killed in a drone strike on a US base in Kuwait last Sunday. Analysts warn there is still no clear path to ending a conflict that US and Israeli officials say could last a month or longer. Trump has suggested Iran’s economy could be rebuilt if a leader “acceptable” to Washington replaces the late supreme leader. China and Russia have largely stayed on the sidelines despite close ties with Tehran. China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said the war in the Middle East should “never have happened,” telling a press conference in Beijing: “The world cannot return to the law of the jungle.”
On Sunday, Pope Leo XIV prayed “that the roar of the bombs may cease, the weapons may fall silent, and a space for dialogue may open.”
© 2024 AFP
