DUBAI/JERUSALEM, Mar 4 (Reuters) – Mojtaba Khamenei, the powerful son of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and the favorite to succeed his father, two Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday.
Khamenei, 86, was killed by Israeli forces in the first assassination of a national leader by airstrike. The funeral ceremony, scheduled for this Wednesday, was postponed, state media said.
The United States and Israel continued their unrelenting strikes against Iran on Wednesday, in a campaign that the U.S. top commander said was at the forefront of the game plan.
But the rout in global markets turned into a collapse in Asia, including a record slide in Seoul, as investors were not convinced by U.S. President Donald Trump’s assurances that he would quickly reopen the world’s most important sea lane and free the oil and gas blocked in the Middle East.
The two Iranian sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mojtaba, 56, was not in Tehran during the attack that destroyed the leader’s complex and also killed the elder Khamenei’s wife, another son, and several senior military and leadership figures.
Iran said that the Assembly of Experts which will select the new leader would announce its decision soon, only the second time this has happened since the founding of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
“The supreme leader will be identified at the first opportunity; we are close to a conclusion. However, the situation in the country is at war,” said a member of the Assembly, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, to state television. He said the candidates had already been identified, but did not reveal their names.
Israel said it would pursue whoever is chosen.
“Every leader named by the Iranian regime—the terrorist regime identified in this statement—for continuing and leading the plan to destroy Israel, threaten the United States and the free world and the region’s countries, and to repress the Iranian people—will be an unequivocal target for elimination,” said Defense Minister Israel Katz in a statement. “It does not matter what his name is or where he hides.”
Israel said its forces hit targets across Iran for the fifth consecutive day. An Israeli F-35 fighter jet downed an Iranian Yak-130 over Tehran, which is believed to be the first time the new-generation F-35 has shot down a manned aircraft in combat.
