Khamenei was killed in a bombing raid last week after the U.S. and Israel targeted his compound in the Iranian capital of Tehran. Khamenei’s death ended his almost 37-year rule as supreme leader.
Israel justified the attacks as a preemptive strike to protect itself. U.S. President Donald Trump, after days of mixed signals from the White House on the justifications and aims of the war, said on Friday that the ultimate goal is “unconditional surrender” by the Islamic Republic’s leaders.
The continuing attacks haven’t stopped Tehran from seeking a successor to Khamenei. Iran’s Mehr news agency reported on Sunday that Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerical body tasked with selecting the next leader, had reached a decision, although the name hasn’t been announced yet.
“The vote to appoint the leader has taken place and the leader has been chosen,” Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, was quoted as saying by Mehr. He said the secretariat of the body will announce the name later.
Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, the head of the assembly’s secretariat, will be responsible for announcing the decision. Among the top criteria for the next leader is that they should “be hated by the enemy,” according to a member of the selection panel, Reuters reported.
The assembly’s vote came even as the war in Iran continued to spill into the wider Persian Gulf region, as Tehran targeted U.S. and Israeli military bases across the Middle East with drone and missile attacks. Iran on Sunday also hit fuel tanks at Kuwait’s international airport and damaged a desalination plant in Bahrain, AFP reported.