Israel strikes Iran’s Assembly of Experts site as succession vote looms
Israel struck a site tied to Iran’s Assembly of Experts in Qom, with reports conflicting over whether clerics were meeting to pick a new leader
Israel attacked the Assembly of Experts, the religious body responsible for selecting Iran’s next supreme leader, as the succession process began.
Trump said the strike was severe, but reports on the ground were inconsistent.
Bloomberg reported that the Assembly of Experts is preparing to choose a new leader soon, after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei died following Israeli and US attacks on Saturday (February 28).
Iranian and Israeli media reported that on Tuesday (March 3) Israel struck the Assembly of Experts’ office in Qom, south of Tehran, but accounts of the outcome differed.
Israel’s Kan News, citing a senior Israeli official, reported that the council was meeting at the time to choose the next supreme leader.
Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency said no meeting was taking place at that time.
Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency reported that the building was hit, but it was not in use at the time.
Iran’s Fars news agency reported that the council was voting remotely using other, safer methods, and that the announcement of the new leader would come soon.
US President Donald Trump told reporters in Washington, without giving details: “Today there was another strike at the new leadership — quite severe.”
The Assembly of Experts is a Shi’ite clerical leadership body with 88 members.
It is expected to choose a new leader soon after Khamenei, who had ruled Iran since 1989, was killed in Israeli and US attacks on Saturday.
At present, a temporary leadership council of three figures — President Masoud Pezeshkian, senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, a conservative who serves as the head of the judiciary — is overseeing the country until a new supreme leader is appointed.
It is widely expected that Mojtaba, Khamenei’s second son, whom Iranian media have reported is still alive, is a leading contender to succeed his father.
On Sunday (March 1), Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the new supreme leader could be chosen within a few days.
