Younger, reportedly more 'hardline' Ayatollah takes command as regime stability continues: Military and political elites have pledged allegiance to Mojtaba Khamenei, who replaces his slain father as supreme leader and is viewed as a figure favored by the IRGC.

Offramp, or more global shock & pain ahead?Trump after seeing oil prices:Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, isa very small price to payfor U.S.A., and World, ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!

Threat of whole regional war ongoing: Turkey says second Iranian ballistic missile shot down by NATO defenses in airspace, but thenNATO quickly contradicts- saying no 2nd missile was intercepted.

Nation-building, nation-smashing, divergent US-Israeli aims?More from Trump"...willwork tirelessly to bring Iran back from the brink of destruction, making iteconomically bigger, better, and stronger than ever before." But US officials distance themselves from big weekend attacks on Iranian oil.

Iran shuts door on ceasefire talk possibility, accuses US of seeking 'partition': as several countries have begun mediation efforts; however Foreign Ministry says: "While military aggression continues, there islittle room to talk about anything other than a decisive response."

CENTCOM confirms 8th US troop death; More Iranian missile/drone hits on Gulf sites, IDF ground operations expand inside Lebanon

Iran's military and political leadership has reportedly pledged allegiance to Mojtaba Khamenei, who aswe reportedwas named Sunday to replace his slain father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the country’s new supreme leader. The relatively young 56-year old is not some Delcy Rodriguez character, as he's a military veteran of the eight year Iran-Iraq war and saw his wife Zahra killed in an Israeli airstrike. He's said to be thefavored IRGC choice andmore hardlinethan his father Ali Khamenei.

The United States and Israel continue to unleash their mass bombing campaign across Iran, with explosions reported in Qom and Tehran hours after weekend Israeli strikes on oil facilitiessent toxic smoke and even oil-infused rain across the Iranian capital. There's been emerging reports suggesting there's been some divergence or even distance on war aims and strategy between the US and Israel; however, this could also simply be war propaganda put out by officials - and yet probably President Trump doesn't like to see oil go up in flames.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei of course has a different theory. Hesaidin a fresh statement that the attacks aim"at partitioning our country to take illegal possession of our oil riches."He likely has Syria in mind, which Iran propped up on support of Assad for over a decade, but which has been permanently fractured, weakened, and a once significant Russian-supplied anti-air defense and missile arsenal utterly destroyed. The Syria model is something Israeli policy makers have talked about for decades, and Israel appears to be willing to smash an entire Iranian nation of 90+ million.

With this in mind, Baghaei emphasized there's no halting the fight at this stage: "While military aggression continues, there is little room to talk about anything other than a decisive response,"he said Monday. Trump recently said operations won't cease until there's"unconditional surrender"by Iran.

Source: ZeroHedge News