Mojtaba Khamenei has emerged as the name over Iran's leadership succession after a senior Iranian official told state media that the Assembly of Experts had elected a new supreme leader without publicly naming the winner as strikes continued across Iran, Lebanon and the Gulf on Sunday.

The news came afterAyatollah Ali Khamenei was reported killed in an Israeli strikelast Saturday, pushing the war between Iran, the US and Israel into its ninth day and opening a vacuum at the top of the Islamic Republic as the region slid further into open conflict. President Donald Trump had already said he wanted to personally select Iran's next leader if American strikes destroyed the regime, while the Israeli military warned in a Farsi post on X that it would pursue anyone involved in appointing a successor.​​

The son of the slain Ali Khamenei was injured during one of the attacks. He is being touted as a potential new Supreme LeaderMojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was injured during one of the attacks, according to Al Hadath and Times of Israel, citing…https://t.co/tZsJihCGvcpic.twitter.com/8Ak9MvkF6i

What Iran has officially said is narrower than rumour mongers would like as Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, told state media that a leader had been chosen after a vote but did not say who that person was, and that omission leaves room for speculation that has rushed in at speed.

Among the names circulating,Mojtaba Khamenei has drawn the most attention, with Iran International reporting that the Assembly of Experts was moving to formally announce him despite internal unease over anything resembling hereditary rule.

A separate Iran International report went further, sayingMojtaba had already been elected under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards, though that claim sits outside the more cautious official statement carried by The Independent. Nothing in the public Iranian statement quoted by state media confirms Mojtaba Khamenei by name, so for now that part should be treated with a grain of salt.​

That gap between official language and whispered certainty is where this story now lives as Iran says a choice has been made but has not yet disclosed who that person is and in a crisis that sort of silence rarely calms anyone.

The succession drama is unfolding against a backdrop that is anything but procedural. On Sunday, Israel struck southern Lebanon, Beirut and oil storage facilities in Tehran, while Benjamin Netanyahu said there would be 'many surprises' in the next phase of the conflict.

Iran, for its part, hit a desalination plant in Bahrain, and foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said a US airstrike had damaged an Iranian desalination plant on Qeshm Island, adding that 'the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.'​

The attack on oil storage sites in Tehran sent pillars of fire into the night sky in Associated Press footage, and The Independent reported that it appeared to be the first time a civil industrial facility had been targeted in the war. That detail gives the succession question a harder edge.

Source: International Business Times UK