Khamenei Israel-Iran conflict news

Tehran, Iran – Massive airstrikes from the United States and Israel continue to hit Tehran and other cities, as the Iranian establishment ponders its fate as it launches missiles across the region.

The capital was rocked several times on Sunday after a series of attacks in several neighborhoods, with the Israeli army saying military centers were among the targets. Iranian officials have refrained from discussing the missile’s implications, and internet access has been completely blocked for a second day.

After Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top commanders were killed in Tehran early in the war on Saturday, the rest of the Islamic Republic’s top officials are stressing that the theocratic establishment has a clear path based on its own internal mechanisms.

Through laws enacted after the country’s 1979 Islamic revolution, a clerical body called the Assembly of Experts is tasked with choosing the next supreme leader.

Iranian President Masoud Pezheshkian said a new leadership council had “started its work” after Khamenei’s death. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghi told Al Jazeera that the process should be completed within days.

Until that happens, a three-member council will rule.

As members of the council, Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and President Pezheshkian have pledged continuity. In his first video address on Sunday, Pezheshkian called on pro-establishment supporters to gather in mosques and major city streets despite the war.

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a clerical member of the powerful constitutional watchdog known as the Guardian Council, was announced on Sunday as the third member. The expediency council, an arbitral body, was entrusted with the task of selecting legal experts for the new council.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was established after the 1979 revolution and has since grown into a significant military and economic power, is expected to play a key role.

Mohammad Pakpoor, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the IRGC a year ago after his predecessor was killed during the 12-day war with Israel, was killed on Saturday. Among the dead were the head of Iran’s armed forces, Abdolrahim Mousavi, the head of the Defense Council, Ali Shamkhani, and the head of police intelligence, Gholam-Reza Rezaian.

The IRGC vowed revenge and launched “the heaviest offensive operations in the history of the Islamic Republic’s armed forces against occupied land (a reference to Israel) and American terrorist bases.”

Army chief Amir Hatami also pledged to continue defending the country, as the military claimed its fighter jets had completed bombing US bases across the region without delivering a piece.

Police chief Ahmed-Reza Radan said his forces were ready to fight for “public safety”, as the US and Israel openly called on Iranians to protest in the streets with the aim of toppling the establishment in the foreseeable future.

Security chief Ali Larijani, another key figure in the Islamic Republic’s power structure, supported a constitutional process to determine future leadership while influencing countries struggling with incoming Iranian missiles and drones.

In a post on X in Arabic, Tehran said it does not want to attack its neighbors, but considers US bases in those countries “American territory.” He also released a separate all-caps post in English, saying, “Today we will hit them with a force we have never felt before.”

Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a top IRGC commander and former security chief who served as Khamenei’s appointed representative to the Supreme Defense Council, vowed that the body would continue its work despite the killing of its top members, including Shamkhani. The council was formed to strengthen defense strategies after Iran suffered heavy damage from Israeli and US bombing of its nuclear and military sites following a war with Israel last June.

Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of founding Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, praised the 86-year-old Khamenei after he was killed, calling him “a leader of the Iranian people and Muslims around the world.”

Khomeini, a relatively moderate cleric, has a chance to become the next supreme leader among the people reported by the Western media. Khomeini did not address the issue, but stressed on Sunday that defending the “sacred establishment of the Islamic Republic” was of paramount importance.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, who last week rejected being part of a power grab at the height of nationwide protests in January, said he would support the interim council, the armed forces and the government in an effort to preserve the establishment.

Former President Mohammad Khatami Khamenei condemned the assassination as an attempt to harm Iran’s “freedom and unity”. He echoed earlier calls for reforms to frustrate the “enemies” of the theocratic establishment.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the controversial populist president of Iran from 2005 to 2013, was killed along with several bodyguards after being targeted by Israel, according to some local media reports. The state-affiliated Iran Labor News Agency on Sunday, citing an informed source, denied that he had died, but did not elaborate.

Multiple videos of the strikes at 72 Square in eastern Tehran’s Narmuk neighborhood on Saturday show Ahmadinejad’s area of ​​residence being targeted. More than 150 people, most of them children, were killed in another school strike in the southern Iranian city of Minab, according to local officials, while a school in the same area was damaged and at least two children were killed.

As US and Israeli officials vow to attack Iran for days or weeks, using hundreds of warplanes to target state officials, it remains to be seen where the balance of power lies in Iran.

For now, Iranian officials have offered condolences to Khamenei, who has stood without a helm for 36 years.

The government has declared seven days of public holidays and 40 days of mourning and organized large gatherings to commemorate Khamenei, including Sunday night.