Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei<\/a> to succeed his late father as Iran’s supreme leader sent oil prices surging and markets sliding. Investors saw it as a signal that Iran was digging in 10 days into the war launched by the United States and Israel.<\/p>\nOil prices later fell, and the US stock market closed higher after Trump told a group of lawmakers at his golf club near Miami that the conflict may end soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took a little excursion\u201d to the Middle East \u201cto get rid of some evil. And, I think you\u2019ll see it\u2019s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump said.<\/p>\n
Trump also had a call today with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the war and other issues. Putin\u2019s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Putin \u201cvoiced a few ideas regarding a quick political and diplomatic settlement\u201d of the conflict following his conversations with Gulf leaders and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.<\/p>\n
Khamenei, a secretive 56-year-old cleric, is only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic. He has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989, was killed during the war\u2019s opening salvo.<\/p>\n
Multiple strikes shake Tehran<\/p>\n
More than 20 heavy explosions were heard in Tehran in what was considered the heaviest air raid on the capital since the war started February 28. Iranian media did not report on damages and casualties.<\/p>\n
Israel said today that it was carrying out \u201ca wide-scale wave of strikes\u201d on the Iranian city of Isfahan, as well as Tehran and in southern Iran. The Israeli military said it hit dozens of infrastructure sites, including the drone headquarters of the Revolutionary Guard.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Israel\u2019s military said more missiles had been launched from Iran toward Israel late Monday (local time).<\/p>\n
Trump said the United States was nearing its goal to eliminate Iran\u2019s ballistic missile stockpile and its ability to produce and launch them. The administration has offered shifting rationales and timelines since the start of the conflict.<\/p>\n
He also talked about “building a new country,\u201d a comment that seemed to suggest the US might be engaged in the building of a new Iran.<\/p>\n
Trump says he likes idea of another \u2018internal\u2019 candidate to lead Iran<\/p>\n
Thousands poured into a central square in the capital, Tehran, and other locations in a show of allegiance to the new supreme leader, waving flags and shouting phrases like \u201cDeath to America\u201d and \u201cDeath to Israel\u201d.<\/p>\n
The younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war started, was long considered a potential successor \u2014 even before the killing of his 86-year-old father.<\/p>\n
Trump told reporters that he was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that Mojtaba Khamenei was picked and that he liked \u201cthe idea\u201d of a leader drawn from an \u201cinternal\u201d group of candidates, saying that this process \u201cworks well\u201d with Venezuela\u2019s new leader, Delcy Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
The younger Khamenei is seen as even less compromising than his late father. As supreme leader, he has the final say on all major policies, including Tehran\u2019s disputed nuclear program.<\/p>\n
Though Iran\u2019s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the US bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, it still has highly enriched uranium that\u2019s a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did \u2014 build a nuclear bomb.<\/p>\n
Trump told reporters the war with Iran started because that country was starting work on a new site for developing material for nuclear weapons to replace one bombed last year by the US.<\/p>\n
Israel has already described Khamenei as a potential target. Trump said today it \u201cwould be inappropriate\u201d to say whether he would be targeted.<\/p>\n
US market seesaws over uncertainty of war<\/p>\n
The US stock market careened through a manic Monday (local time), going from a steep early loss to a solid gain as worries turned into hope that the war with Iran may not last that long. Oil prices whipped from nearly $120 (NZ$202.26) per barrel, the highest since 2022, back toward $90 (NZ$151.66).<\/p>\n
Iran\u2019s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world\u2019s oil is carried, and Iranian drones and missiles have targeted oil and gas infrastructure in major producers. Attacks on merchant ships near the strait have killed at least seven mariners, according to the International Maritime Organization.<\/p>\n
Kamal Kharazi, foreign policy adviser to the office of the supreme leader, told CNN today that Iran is prepared for a long war. He said he sees no \u201croom for diplomacy anymore\u201d unless economic pressure prompts other countries to intervene and stop the \u201caggression of Americans and Israelis against Iran\u201d.<\/p>\n
Turkey, meanwhile, said NATO defenses had intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the country\u2019s airspace for the second time since the war started.<\/p>\n
Regional anger grows as energy infrastructure is hit<\/p>\n
Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following the drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the \u201cbiggest loser\u201d if it continues to attack Arab states.<\/p>\n
In the UAE, home to the futuristic city of Dubai, authorities said two people were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi. The Emirati Defense Ministry said 15 ballistic missiles and 18 drones were fired at the country today.<\/p>\n
Iran also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area, wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending up thick plumes of smoke.<\/p>\n
The US State Department early Monday (local time) ordered nonessential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia. Several other US diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave.<\/p>\n
The war has killed at least 1230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials.<\/p>\n
A total of seven US service members have been killed.<\/p>\n
Trump said today that family members of the soldiers told him during the transfer of their remains over the weekend in Dover, Delaware: \u201cMake sure you win, sir.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"US President Donald Trump said today that the war against Iran may be short-lived despite the country’s selection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":321782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[65,42,5107,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-321781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-donald-trump","tag-headlines","tag-middle-east","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/321782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}