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The Israeli military has said it carried out several wide-scale waves of strikes across Iran, as supporters of the Islamic Republic staged rallies to celebrate the appointment of a new supreme leader.
Mojtaba Khamenei, a hardline Shia Muslim cleric close to the powerful Revolutionary Guards, was chosen on Sunday to succeed his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in a strike at the start of the war with the US and Israel nine days ago.
In his first reaction to the decision, US President Donald Trump said he was “not happy”.
Meanwhile, Iran launched new barrages of missile and drones at Gulf Arab states hosting US military bases and Israel, where one person was killed on Monday.
Iranian state TV announced late on Sunday that Mojtaba Khamenei had been elected the new supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 Shia clerics.
On Monday, authorities called on people to gather in major squares and streets across the country to “pledge allegiance” to the 56-year-old.
Videos published by Iranian media showed rallies in Tehran, Bojnurd, Tabriz, Zanjan, Kerman, Khorramabad, Mashhad, Bushehr, Yazd, Qom and Ilam.
Thousands took part in a rally in the capital’s Enghelab Square, chanting “Death to America, death to Israel” and “God is greatest” under a banner bearing a portrait of Ali Khamenei and the words “Your path will continue”.
A teenager told Iran’s Student News Network (SNN) that the appointment showed that the Iranian people are “alive and will not back down”.
But a man in his 30s told BBC Persian that “even the thinnest of chances for a change are no more”, adding that supporters of the establishment “don’t even need to change their chants”.
On Sunday night, some social media users had shared footage reportedly showing people in Tehran chanting “Death to Mojtaba” from their balconies. They echoed chants against his father that were heard during the nationwide protests in January, when thousands of people were killed in a crackdown by security forces.
Little is known about Mojtaba Khamenei, who has never held an official position.
However, he is known to have been heavily involved in running his father’s office, with influence over politics, security, foreign affairs and the economy.
The Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) quickly pledged its allegiance to him, while the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, said his appointment had “caused the hostile and warmongering enemies to despair.
Israel’s foreign ministry dismissed Mojtaba Khamenei as “another tyrant to continue the Iranian regime’s brutality”.
Before Sunday’s announcement, the US president had warned that any leader chosen without his approval “isn’t going to last long”.
Asked about his plans for the new supreme leader on Monday, Trump told the New York Post: “Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him.”
He later told CBS News that the war was “very far ahead” of his initially stated schedule of four or five weeks.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” he said. “They have no navy, no communications, they’ve got no air force.”
On Monday evening, Trump said the US had “won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough”.
