Iran names ex-supreme leader’s son to succeed him as war sends oil price soaring

Iran has named Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of its late supreme leader, as its next ruler, putting a hard-line cleric in charge as the war spreading across the Middle East sent oil prices skyrocketing with the Islamic Republic launching new attacks on regional energy infrastructure.

With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the United States and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose the secretive, 56-year-old cleric with close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the new supreme leader.

The Revolutionary Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since the younger Khamenei’s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed on February 28 during the war’s opening salvo.

Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has also all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried.

Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to more than 120 dollars a barrel on Monday, about 65% higher than when the war started, before retreating slightly.

As global economic concerns grew, US President Donald Trump downplayed the spike in prices as temporary.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” Mr Trump wrote on social media.

Iran has targeted Israel and American bases in the region since the start of the war. On Monday, a man was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, raising the country’s death toll in the war to 11.

As Iran continued to hit regional energy infrastructure, a fire broke out on Monday at an oil facility that was attacked in Fujairah, in the United Arab Emirates. Bahrain’s only oil refinery was apparently also hit and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking its Shaybah oil field.

Israel, meantime, claimed strikes on targets in Iran’s city of Isfahan, saying it hit command centres for the Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer Basij force, as well as a rocket engine production facility and missile launch sites.

In Israel, sirens blared multiple times across the country as Iran’s drones and missiles were unrelenting. A woman was wounded by debris in central Israel.

The younger Khamenei, who had not been seen or heard from publicly since the war started, had long been considered a potential successor – even before the Israeli strike killed his father. His wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed in the same Israeli strike that killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Political figures within Iran have criticised the idea of handing over the supreme leader’s title based on heredity and thereby creating a clerical version of the rule of the shah, who was toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

But top clerics in the Assembly of Experts likely wanted Mr Khamenei to prosecute the war.

Mr Khamenei, who is believed to hold views that are even more hard-line than his late father, now will be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision regarding Tehran’s nuclear programme.

While the country’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the US bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, there’s still highly enriched uranium in Iran that is a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Mr Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did – build a nuclear bomb.

Israel has already described him as a potential target, while Mr Trump had called him “unacceptable”.

“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Mr Trump had said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard issued a statement expressing support, as did the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, praised the Assembly of Experts for “courageously” convening even as air strikes continued in Tehran. He said the younger Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation”.

Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following a thwarted drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.

The Foreign Ministry said Iranian attacks mean “further escalation which will have a grave impact on the relations, currently and in the future”.

In addition to energy facilities in the UAE, authorities there said the capital of Abu Dhabi was targeted by Iranian missiles and two were hurt by shrapnel from interceptions.

Iran attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travellers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

On Monday, the island kingdom’s state oil company declared force majeure for its oil shipments, state-run Bahrain News Agency reported, a legal move that releases a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. It insisted that local demand could still be met.

In Iraq, air defences shot down a drone as it attacked a US military compound inside the Baghdad International Airport, a security source told the AP.

There were no reported injuries or damage and it was not immediately clear who was behind the attack, but Pro-Iranian Iraqi militias have previously targeted the base.

Elsewhere, the US military had said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven US soldiers have now been killed.

The US State Department on Monday ordered non-essential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia following the escalation in attacks.

Eight other US diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave: Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

Smoke billowed over Beirut in Lebanon after Israel carried out air strikes on its southern suburbs on Monday.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials.

Another person died in Israel of an asthma attack on her way to a shelter. Israel reported its first soldier deaths on Sunday, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where its military is fighting Hezbollah.