Iran picks new Supreme Leader as Israeli strikes blanket Tehran in smoke

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

Iran’s clerical establishment has achieved a majority consensus on selecting a successor to the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a joint US-Israeli airstrike last weekend.

They said though key obstacles persist before any formal announcement, amid escalating regional warfare that has seen Iranian retaliatory strikes reach Kuwait and thick smoke from targeted oil facilities plunge Tehran into near-darkness.

According to reports from Iran’s Mehr News Agency, Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammadmehdi Mirbaqeri stated that the body responsible for appointing the supreme leader has largely agreed on a candidate, guided in part by Khamenei’s own counsel that the role should be filled by someone “hated by the enemy” rather than praised by it.

However, he noted that “some obstacles” in the process, potentially including logistical challenges to convening members under wartime conditions or internal deliberations, remain unresolved.

The Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical panel, holds the constitutional authority to name the new leader, with a temporary council currently managing affairs in the interim.

The development unfolds against heightened threats from Israel, which has vowed to target any successor who perpetuates Khamenei’s hardline policies.

Israeli officials have described potential appointees as “unequivocal targets for elimination,” with the IDF stating it will “pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor.”

Speculation has centred on figures like Mojtaba Khamenei, the late leader’s son, though US President Donald Trump has publicly deemed him “unacceptable,” adding external pressure to Iran’s internal deliberations.

In Tehran, residents described an apocalyptic scene as thick black smoke from Israeli strikes on oil refineries and depots blanketed the capital, blotting out the sun and forcing people to turn on lights during daylight hours.

Witnesses reported the smell of burning fuel lingering in the air, with soot raining down and visibility severely reduced, evoking descriptions that “it is as if the sun has completely disappeared.”

The attacks have targeted energy infrastructure, aiming to cripple Iran’s military sustainment amid the ongoing conflict that began with the strikes killing Khamenei and dozens of senior figures.

Iran’s retaliation extended to the Gulf on Sunday, when an Iranian drone struck Kuwait City’s high-rise Public Institution for Social Security building, igniting a massive fire that engulfed upper floors before being contained by emergency services.

Kuwaiti authorities confirmed the incident as part of a broader wave of drone and missile threats, with shrapnel causing material damage.

The strike follows similar reports of Iranian projectiles affecting civilian sites in the region, heightening fears of wider escalation.

Further north, Israel’s intensified operations in Lebanon have resulted in 394 deaths since early March, including 83 children and 42 women, according to Lebanese Health Minister Rakan Nasreddine.

Over 1,130 people have been wounded in the renewed clashes, which Lebanese officials attribute to Israeli airstrikes targeting Hezbollah-linked sites.