Iranian state media said the leadership of Iran’s armed forces had pledged allegiance to Mojtaba Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said in a statement they are ready to follow the new supreme leader.
The Assembly of Experts met on Sunday to elect a new supreme leader despite threats that the body would be targeted, Iran’s security chief, Ali Larijani, said on state TV after the announcement.
Mojtaba Khamenei could lead the country under the current sensitive conditions, Larijani said, calling for unity around the new leader.
Iran has launched strikes across the region in retaliation against U.S. and Israeli attacks. The U.S. State Department said on Sunday it had ordered non-emergency U.S. government employees and their family members to leave Saudi Arabia due to safety risks, days after the embassy in the Saudi capital was damaged in a drone attack blamed on Iran.
Early on Sunday, the Saudi Defence Ministry said that it had shot down a drone that attempted to target the Diplomatic Quarter, a calm tree-lined neighbourhood on the city’s western edge that hosts most foreign missions, including the U.S. embassy.
The U.S. has already raised its warning level for Saudi Arabia and allowed some personnel to leave the country, and has ordered the departure of staff at embassies in Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain since the outbreak of the war.
Israel continued to target senior Iranian figures, including Abolqasem Babaian, the recently appointed head of the military office of the supreme leader, saying he was killed in a Saturday strike.
‘DANGEROUS NEW PHASE’
As fighting escalated on Sunday, day nine of the U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, thick black smoke hung over Tehran, residents said, after strikes on oil storage facilities had lit up the night sky with plumes of orange flame.
Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said the large-scale attack marked a “dangerous new phase” of the conflict and amounted to a war crime.
Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani told reporters the depots were used to fuel Iran’s war effort, including producing or storing propellant for ballistic missiles. “They are a legal military target,” he said.
Netanyahu said his government would press on with the assault and strike Iran’s rulers “without mercy”.
“We have an organised plan with many surprises to destabilise the regime and enable change,” he said in a video statement.
(Reuters)
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