Iran this Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father, Ali Khamenei, as supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge, as the \u200bweek-old United States (US)-Israeli war with Iran pushed oil above $100 a barrel.<\/p>\n
Mojtaba, a cleric with influence inside Iran\u2019s security forces and vast business networks under his father, had been viewed as a frontrunner \u200cin the lead-up to Sunday\u2019s vote by the Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics tasked with choosing Ali Khamenei\u2019s successor.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy a decisive vote, the Assembly of Experts appointed Ayatollah Seyyed Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei as the third Leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran,\u201d the Assembly said in a statement issued just after midnight Tehran time.<\/p>\n
The position gives Mojtaba the final say in all matters of state in the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
Mojtaba\u2019s appointment will likely draw the ire of US President Donald Trump, who said on \u200bSunday that Washington should have a say in the selection. \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t get approval from us, he\u2019s not going to last long,\u201d he told ABC News.<\/p>\n
Israel, ahead of the announcement, threatened to target whoever was \u200bchosen.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Times of Israel after the new supreme leader was named, Trump declined to respond, saying only \u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens,\u201d according to the newspaper. \u2060Trump also said in the interview that ending the war would be a \u201cmutual\u201d decision with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/p>\n
Mojtaba\u2019s father, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, was killed in one of the first strikes launched against Iran more \u200bthan a week ago.<\/p>\n
Washington on Sunday ordered the departure of non-emergency employees at its embassy in Saudi Arabia, the latest drawdown of US diplomats as Iran has struck US facilities in the region.<\/p>\n
The US military reported a seventh American \u200bhas died from wounds sustained during Iran\u2019s initial counter-attack a week ago, a day after Trump presided over the return to the United States of the remains of the six others killed.<\/p>\n
The US-Israeli attacks have killed at least 1 332 Iranian civilians and wounded thousands, according to Iran\u2019s United Nations Ambassador.<\/p>\n
–Reuters–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21513,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-28078","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Israel, ahead of the announcement, threatened to target whoever was \u200bchosen.","published_date":"","news_description":"Israel, ahead of the announcement, threatened to target whoever was \u200bchosen.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28079,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28078\/revisions\/28079"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}