{"id":503274,"date":"2026-03-04T13:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503274\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T13:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T13:41:09","slug":"live-updates-us-war-with-iran-trump-accused-of-bombing-tehran-out-of-spite-israel-vows-to-kill-next-supreme-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/503274\/","title":{"rendered":"Live updates: US war with Iran, Trump accused of bombing Tehran \u2018out of spite\u2019, Israel vows to kill next supreme leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Mojtaba<\/p>\n

\n In the coming days, a body of 88 senior clerics, known as the Assembly of Experts, will select a successor for Iran\u2019s slain Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Speculation is rife that the position will be filled by his second son, Mojtaba Khamenei.\n <\/p>\n

\n Mojtaba is a significant figure with strong links to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite wing of Iran\u2019s military. He is said to be well-connected, and already influential within the regime, holding a deep understanding of its inner-workings.\n <\/p>\n

\n The potential appointment of Mojtaba to the top position carries weight, and would signal \u201ca continuation of the regime\u201d according to Maha Yahya, director of the Beirut-based Carnegie Middle East Center.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThe regime is still holding together and we see that,\u201d the analyst added, \u201cWe see that very clearly there have been no cracks, no leaks, nothing. It\u2019s holding together and it\u2019s holding together quite well.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yahya explained that as a successor<\/a>, Mojtaba Khamenei would likely intensify the regime, as he is considered more of a \u201chardliner\u201d than his father, who was killed in US-Israeli strikes on Saturday. If he is appointed, she added, the move would be considered a signal from the regime that US-Israel military pressure is \u201cnot going to get us to shift position.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Yahya noted that Iran\u2019s strategy has been to hit potential threats to its regime economically, \u201cIran\u2019s strategy \u2026 has been to really increase the cost on everyone,\u201d she explained, \u201cIt\u2019s targeting energy infrastructure, which is affecting Europe and other parts of the world. It\u2019s targeting civilian infrastructure.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n CNN\u2019s Christian Edwards and Mustafa Qadri contributed to this report. This post has been updated.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the coming days, a body of 88 senior clerics, known as the Assembly of Experts, will select…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":503275,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,29430,100016,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-503274","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-hnk","10":"tag-intl","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503274","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=503274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/503274\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/503275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=503274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=503274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=503274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}