Ayatollah Khamenei’s son Mojtaba elected as the supreme leader of Iran

Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has long been considered a contender to the post of the country’s next paramount ruler, even before an Israeli strike killed his father at the start of the war last week and despite never having been elected or appointed to a government position.

A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen publicly since Saturday, when the Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father. Also killed were the younger Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy.

Khamenei is believed to still be alive and likely has gone into hiding as American and Israeli airstrikes continue to pound Iran, though state-run Iranian media have not reported on his whereabouts.

But now with his father and wife considered by hard-liners as martyrs in the war against the United States and Israel, Khamenei’s stock likely has risen with the aging clerics of the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, who will select the country’s next supreme leader.

Whoever becomes the leader will gain control of an Iranian military now at war and a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, should he choose to decree it.

Khamenei had occupied a similar role to that of Ahmad Khomeini, a son of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, which was « a combination of aide-de-camp, confidant, gatekeeper and power broker,” according to United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based pressure group.

And U.S. President Donald Trump may have indirectly boosted his candidacy by criticizing Khamenei in an interview with news website Axios on Thursday and insisting he be involved in selecting Iran’s next leader.

“They are wasting their time. Khamenei’s son is a lightweight. I have to be involved in the appointment,” Trump said, referring to his operation that saw the U.S. military seize former Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro.

“Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me, » Trump added. « We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

Born in 1969 in the city of Mashhad, some 10 years before the 1979 Islamic Revolution that would sweep Iran, Khamenei grew up as his father agitated against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

An official biography on Ali Khamenei’s life recounts one moment when the shah’s secret police, the SAVAK, broke into their home and beat the cleric. Woken up after, Mojtaba and the rest of Khamenei’s children were told their father was going on vacation.

“But I told them, ‘There is no need to lie.’ I told them the truth, » the elder Khamenei was quoted as saying.

After the fall of the shah, Khamenei’s family moved to Tehran, Iran’s capital. Khamenei would go on to fight in the Iran-Iraq war with the Habib ibn Mazahir Battalion, a division of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard that would see several of its members ascend to powerful intelligence positions within the force, likely with the backing of the Khamenei family.

His father became supreme leader in 1989, and soon Mojtaba Khamenei and his family had access to the billions of dollars and business assets spread across Iran’s many bonyads, or foundations, funded from state industries and other wealth once held by the shah.

His own power rose alongside his father’s, working within his offices in downtown Tehran. U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s began referring to the younger Khamenei as “the power behind the robes.” One recounted an allegation that Khamenei actually tapped his own father’s phone, served as his “principal gatekeeper” and had been forming his own power base within the country.

Khamenei “is widely viewed within the regime as a capable and forceful leader and manager who may someday succeed to at least a share of national leadership; his father may also see him in that light,” a 2008 cable read, also noting his lack of theological qualifications and age.

“Mojtaba is, however, due to his skills, wealth, and unmatched alliances, reportedly seen by a number of regime insiders as a plausible candidate for shared leadership of Iran upon his father’s demise, whether that demise is soon or years in the future,” it said.

Khamenei has worked closely with Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, both with commanders of its expeditionary Quds Force and its all-volunteer Basij that violently suppressed nationwide protests in January, the US Treasury has said.

The United States sanctioned him in 2019 during Trump’s first term over working to “advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”

That includes allegations that Khamenei from behind the scenes supported the election of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2005 and his disputed re-election in 2009 that sparked the Green Movement protests.

Mahdi Karroubi, who was a presidential candidate in 2005 and 2009, denounced Khamenei as “a master’s son” and alleged he interfered in both votes. His father reportedly at the time said Khamenei was “a master himself, not a master’s son. »

There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of supreme leader of Iran, the paramount decision-maker since the Islamic Revolution. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died at age 86 after being the figurehead of the revolution and leading Iran through its eight-year war with Iraq.

Now the new leader will come on board after the 12-day war with Israel and as a U.S.-Israeli war with Iran is seeking to eliminate Iran’s nuclear threat and military power, hoping also the Iranian people will rise up against the Iranian theocracy.

The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state. He also serves as the commander-in-chief of the country’s military and the Guard, a paramilitary force that the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2019, and which his father empowered during his rule.

The Guard, which has led the self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a series of militant groups and allies across the Middle East meant to counter the U.S. and Israel, also has extensive wealth and holdings in Iran. It also controls the country’s ballistic missile arsenal.

The Kingdom’s Defense Ministry said Sunday night it had intercepted a missile headed toward Prince Sultan Air Base, and two drones in northern Riyadh city.

In an earlier post on X, it said it intercepted a drone over the Empty Quarter desert while heading toward the Shaybah oil field.

A separate post had the same details for the latter drone, but it was unclear if that was a different event.

The ministry also shared footage it said showed Saudi air defenses intercepting and destroying “a number of drones” launched at it in recent days.

The US military announced an American service member has died of injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on troops stationed in Saudi Arabia.

The seventh American service member killed in the Iran war was an Army soldier, according to US sources.

The service member died on Saturday from injuries sustained during a March 1 Iranian attack on the kingdom

The American death toll since the start of combat operations now stands at seven. Six Army reservists were also killed in the March 1 attack on Kuwait.

All seven casualties from the war in Iran were Army soldiers. The first six deaths were Army reservists killed in a March 1 attack on a command center in a Kuwaiti port.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the headquarters struck in Teheran operated “the ballistic missile command, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) array, and other air force units.”

The army’s spokesman, Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, said the headquarters were “destroyed.”

Israel has pounded Iran with widespread airstrikes for days, hitting more than 140 targets on Sunday alone, according to Defrin.

US military says a US service member died of injuries sustained during an Iranian attack on US troops in Saudi Arabia.

Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir spoke at an assessment held with the Home Front Command chief and other military officials, in comments provided by the army.

“Israel has already been in a state of prolonged emergency for two years,” Zamir said. “What we mainly need right now is perseverance and patience. It will take a long time yet, you need to be prepared for that, and however long it takes, it will take.”

The military said the overnight strike by its Navy killed five top commanders in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps while they were “hiding in a civilian hotel.”

It said they served in the Guard’s Quds Force’s Lebanon and Palestine corps and were involved in funding, arming and providing intelligence to Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Quds Force works heavily with Iran’s allied militant groups in the region.

Last week the Israeli military said it killed the acting commander of the Quds Force’s Lebanon Corps in an airstrike in Teheran.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he had talks with Iranian President Massoud Pezechkian on Sunday and urged him for stopping strikes.

“I stressed the need for Iran to immediately cease its strikes against countries in the region,” Macron said in a post on X.

He also called on Iran to guarantee freedom of navigation by “putting an end to the de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz.”

Macron also mentioned the case of Cécile Kohler and Jacques Paris, two French nationals who were released from an Iranian prison in November and transferred to the French Embassy in Tehran, after more than three years in detention on spying charges. He called for their return to France as an “absolute priority.”

Macron also stressed deep concern regarding the development of Iran’s nuclear and ballistic program and said a diplomatic solution is necessary.

Both leaders agreed to remain in contact, according to Macron’s post on X. Macron is the first Western leader to talk to Iran’s president since the beginning of the war.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.

He also had separate talks with President Donald Trump, Macron’s office said.

No other details provided.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian backtracked from conciliatory comments a day earlier in which he apologized for attacks on Gulf neighbors’ soil. Iranian hard-liners had swiftly contradicted him, saying war strategy wouldn’t change.

“The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said Sunday. “Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it never has.”

Pezeshkian has urged neighboring states not to take part in U.S. and Israeli attacks.

The U.S. strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments but from U.S. bases and vessels in the region.

“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue, » judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X on Saturday.

Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are part of the three-member leadership council overseeing Iran since Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.

The Gulf nations of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates reported additional Iranian missiles launched toward them.

Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and 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 travelers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

Home to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, Bahrain also has seen hotels, ports and residential towers hit, with at least one person killed.

The desalination plant strike came after Iran said a US airstrike damaged a desalination plant there. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz had cut into the water supply to 30 villages.

He warned that in doing so “the US set this precedent, not Iran.”

In response, CENTCOM spokesperson US Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said that « US forces do not target civilians – period.”

Iranian authorities also said Israel’s overnight strikes on four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal killed four people. Witnesses in Tehran said the smoke was so thick that it looked as if the sun had not risen.

Israel’s military said the oil depots were being used by Iran’s military for fuel to launch missiles.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society said about 10,000 civilian structures across the country had been damaged, including homes, schools and almost three dozen health facilities.

It also warned Tehran residents to take precautions against toxic air pollution and the risk of acid rain after Israel’s strikes. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said the war’s impact on the oil industry would spiral, warning it soon could become harder to produce and sell oil. Some regional producers, including in Iraq, have curbed output amid dangers in the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran maintains sufficient fuel, Veys Karami, managing director of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company, told Iran’s state-run news agency.

US President Donald Trump has faced blowback in Washington after the Treasury Department announced it would allow India to buy Russian oil until April 4.

The move, which temporarily gives Russia a stream of revenue to fund its war against Ukraine that the U.S. only recently managed to cut off, -comes even as Moscow is reportedly sharing information with Iran that could help it target U.S. troops and assets in the Mideast.

But top Trump administration officials say the waiver is motivated by pragmatism.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Russian oil being sold to India had been expected to go to Chinese refineries but had been idling at sea.

“Instead of having it wait six weeks to unload there, let’s just pull that oil forward, have it land at Indian refineries and tamp this fear of shortage of oil, tamp the price spikes and the concerns we see in the marketplace,” Wright said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Ambassador Mike Waltz, the U.S. envoy to the United Nations, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “it was kind of common sense” to let the oil on idling ships go to India.

Moments after residents of southern Israel were warned of incoming ballistic missiles from Iran, sirens sent millions more Israelis in the Tel Aviv metro area and parts of the West Bank into shelters as the army said it had detected another missile attack.

Sri Lanka will issue a monthlong visa for the Iranian sailors evacuated outside its waters after a U.S submarine attack sunk another ship in the same area, killing more than 80 sailors.

Public Security Minister Anada Wijepala told the media on Sunday that the government will issue “a free visa” for the Iranian sailors, adding that “it will take sometime for them to leave this country.”

On Saturday, 204 sailors were transferred to a Sri Lankan naval base from their ship “IRIS Bushehr” which was taken under Sri Lankan custody.

The ship had sought help from Sri Lanka reporting an engine failure. The appeal followed the sinking of the Iranian warship “IRIS Dena by the U.S. torpedo attack, off Sri Lanka’s coast on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan navy rescued 32 sailors and recovered 87 bodies.

The strike marked one of the rare instances since World War II in which a submarine sank a surface warship.

The Kingdom’s Civil Defense said Sunday evening that a military projectile that fell onto a residential area killed two foreign-born residents and wounded 12 others in Al-Kharj governorate.

The Civil Defense spokesperson said in a statement that the two killed were of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality, and all wounded are Bangladeshi residents.

These are the first casualties to be reported by Saudi Arabia since the war began a week ago.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken to US President Donald Trump about the two countries’ military cooperation in the Middle East.

Trump has rebuked Starmer on several occasions since they last spoke over a week ago over the prime minister’s initial decision not to permit the US military to use British bases in the initial attacks against Iran, describing him at one point as “not Winston Churchill.”

Starmer has now granted permission for “defensive” actions against Iranian missile sites from UK bases after Iran started attacking countries throughout the region.

Starmer’s office in No. 10 Downing Street said the pair discussed the military cooperation between the UK and US through the use of bases “in support of the collective self-defense of partners in the region.”

Starmer also shared his “heartfelt condolences” following the deaths of six US soldiers.

US President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader “is not going to last long” if Tehran does not first get his approval.

“He’s going to have to get approval from us,” Trump told ABC News. “If he doesn’t get approval from us, he’s not going to last long.”

His comments came as the Iranian clerical body responsible for choosing the successor to slain supreme leader Ali Khamenei was reported to have voted and is expected to announce a name soon.

Earlier, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, rejected the idea of U.S. interference in the selection of the country’s next supreme leader.

Trump has also been quoted as saying that “we want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” adding that he wants to be involved in the appointment, as he said was the case in Venezuela after U.S. forces captured then-president Nicolás Maduro in January.

Trump has floated the idea of having a say in the selection of Iran’s next supreme leader. The country’s foreign minister is having none of it.

“We allow nobody to interfere in our domestic affairs. This is up to the Iranian people to elect their new leader,” Abbas Araghchi told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” He adds: “It’s only the business of the Iranian people, and nobody else’s business.”

Trump has been quoted as saying “we want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran” and that he wants to be involved in the appointment, as was the case in Venezuela after U.S. forces captured then-President Nicolás Maduro in January.

Israel says it has begun another round of airstrikes on Iran.

It was the second wave of strikes announced by the Israeli military on Sunday.

Pirhoussein Koulivand, head of Iran’s Red Crescent Society, said 65 schools and 32 medical facilities, hospitals and pharmacies have been targeted in the war. They are part of the almost 10,000 civilian sites that Red Crescent claimed earlier Sunday had been damaged in the country.

It came after the Israeli military said Sunday that it had struck more than 3,400 targets in Iran.

U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins, CENTCOM spokesman, denied targeting civilians in a comment to AP Sunday and accused Iran of deliberately doing so.

Israel struck the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in southern Lebanon on Sunday, Lebanese state media reported, amid the new war between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah.

The state-run National News Agency said that « enemy warplanes launched two raids on the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon. »

The Israeli military said on Sunday afternoon that Iran has launched a new barrage of missiles toward Israel.

It says air defences have been activated to intercept the incoming fire.

Sirens warning of incoming missiles sounded in central Israel, including Tel Aviv and parts of Jerusalem.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck what it described as the « space force headquarters » of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Tehran.

« As part of the strikes, the IDF targeted and dismantled the Iranian terror regime’s IRGC Space Force headquarters, » the military said.

« The headquarters served as a reception, transmission and research centre for the Iranian Space Agency, which is affiliated with the regime’s military.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said there’s currently a “ fear premium in the marketplace” but sought to assure Americans that surging fuel prices are a short-term problem.

“We never know exactly the timeframe of this,” Wright said in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union. “But in the worst case, this is a weeks, this is not a months thing.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a Sunday appearance on Fox News call the rising “a short-term disruption” that will benefit consumers in the long term.

“But ultimately taking out the rogue Iranian regime is going to be a good thing for the oil industry,” Leavitt added.

“And those prices are going to come back down just like they have over the course of the past year, because of President Trump’s American energy dominance agenda.”

Defence Minister Martin Pfister said the Swiss government believes the attack on Iran constitutes a violation of international law.

The US and Israel — as well as Iran for its counter attacks — broke international law’s prohibition on the use of force, Pfister said in comments to the SonntagsZeitung paper that were published on Sunday.

Switzerland is governed by a seven-member federal council, who each hold portfolios as government ministers and take turns each year holding the top job of president.

Pfister is part of the council and can speak on its behalf.

The Israeli military said on Sunday it had struck more than 3,400 targets in Iran and more than 600 in Lebanon since the Middle East war began last week.

Military spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani added that Israel believes it has destroyed 60% of the missile launchers across Iran, which he said is causing a bottleneck of launches and dramatically reducing firepower.

Strikes also destroyed Iran’s two major missile production sites that created the missiles with range to reach Israel, he said.

US Central Command issued a safety warning to civilians in Iran on Sunday, saying the “terrorist regime blatantly disregards the safety of innocent people.”

“This dangerous decision risks the lives of all civilians in Iran since locations used for military purposes lose protected status and could become legitimate military targets under international law,” according to the statement.

Central Command says the US military “takes every feasible precaution to minimize harm to civilians but cannot guarantee civilian safety in or near facilities used by the Iranian regime for military purposes.”

“The Iranian regime is using heavily populated civilian areas to conduct military operations, including launching one-way attack drones and ballistic missiles,” the statement said.

The war between Iran and Israel and the United States is now in its ninth day with no end to the fighting in sight.

But before Tehran might even consider a ceasefire, Abbas Araghchi said “they have to explain why they started this aggression.” Araghch did not specify about whom he was speaking.

Araghchi also told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that “there should be a permanent end of the war and unless we get to that, I think we need to continue fighting for the sake of our people and our security.”

He says the war “was imposed on us” by the United States and Israel, and that “what we are doing is legal acts of self-defence and we have every right to do that.”

The State Department says more than 32,000 Americans have left the Middle East since the start of the Iran war last week.

Although most of them departed on commercial flights without government assistance, the department said on Sunday that it had organised nearly two dozen charter flights that had carried several thousand US citizens to destinations in Europe and the United States.

The department said in a statement that more than half of Americans who requested assistance in leaving had declined offers of seats on government-paid charter flights, some of whom have decided to remain in the Middle East and some who prefer to make their own travel plans.

It did not give a number of those who have turned down charter flights but said more than 19,000 Americans had sought information from the State Department about security or transportation options.

An Iranian official deplored the US-Israeli strikes on oil facilities in Iran, saying they pushed the war into a “dangerous phase.”

“These attacks on fuel storage facilities amount to nothing less than intentional chemical warfare against the Iranian citizens,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said in a social media post.

He said such attacks are “devastating the environment and endangering lives on a massive scale” because of hazardous materials and toxic substances they release into the air.

“The consequences of this environmental and humanitarian catastrophe will not be confined within Iran’s borders,” he said.

The Israeli military announced that two soldiers were killed in fighting in southern Lebanon on Sunday.

They are the first military fatalities since the start of the war with Iran last week.

One of the soldiers was identified as 38-year-old Maher Khatar, from the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

The military has not published the name of the second soldier as his family is still being notified.

Shahed-type drones have been one of the main pillars of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine since February 2022.

Four years later, Ukraine is now intercepting around 80% of all Moscow-launched UAVs with home-made interceptors, which have become a central piece in Ukraine’s drone air defences.

You can read Sasha Vakulina’s full report below about how countries in the Middle East may depend on Ukraine’s expertise fighting drones from Iran.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Ukrainian drone experts will be “on site” in the Middle East next week as he seeks US air defence missiles in exchange for drone expertise.

« I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will look at the situation and help, » Zelensky told a press conference, when asked how the Ukrainians would be able to help the United States and the Gulf states to repel Iranian drones.

Zelenskyy said earlier this week that Ukraine is ready to provide drone interceptors in exchange for missiles, though he did not specify which countries could be involved.

He also said that Ukraine is prepared to share its expertise with countries facing Iranian attacks to help protect civilians and oil infrastructure in the Middle East.

« We received a request from the United States for specific support in protection against ‘shaheds’ in the Middle East region, » Zelenskyy said in a statement on Thursday.

Since 2022 Kyiv has developed a complex and multi-layered air defence system against Russian drones, which includes mobile fire groups, often using pickup trucks armed with heavy machine guns, various electronic warfare and Ukraine’s domestically developed interceptors.

According to Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, over 70% of all Shahed-type drones targeting the capital and the Kyiv region were shot down by interceptors in February.

Israel’s rescue services said three Israelis were injured in a missile barrage from Iran on Sunday afternoon.

Rescue services said they responded to impact sites in central Israel and treated a 40-year-old man in serious condition, a 25-year-old man in moderate condition and a 56-year-old man who was slightly injured.

The impact made a meters-deep hole in the ground and thrust a car over a small wall.

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi expressed concerns about the war in the Middle East on Sunday and its “grave repercussions, including rising energy prices and disruptions to supply chains and air and maritime traffic.”

He warned of the dangers of the conflict expanding which he said could plunge the entire region into chaos and called for intensified international efforts to stop it.

El-Sissi’s comments came in a phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Israeli military says Iran has launched a new barrage of missiles toward Israel. It says air defences have been activated to intercept the incoming fire.

More details to follow.

Firefighters have controlled fires at Kuwait International Airport and a government agency in Kuwait City, hours after both facilities were hit in missile and drone attacks early on Sunday.

The General Fire Force said in a statement that it managed to control fires at fuel tanks in the airport as well as the headquarters of the state-run Public Institution for Social Insurance.

Spokesperson Brigadier General Mohammed Badr said the fire damaged both the tanks and the insurance agency building. No causalities were reported, he said.

The Arab League chief lashed out at Iran on Sunday for attacking Arab countries during its war against the US and Israel.

Secretary General Ahmed Abouel Gheit told a virtual meeting of Arab foreign ministers that Iran’s strikes against its neighbours “can’t be justified” and reflects a “reckless policy.”

He said Arab countries haven’t played any role in the war against Iran and declared that their territories wouldn’t be used as launching pads for attacks on the country.

“This unjustified Iranian aggression reflects a confused understanding and further isolates Iran during this difficult and delicate period,” he said.

The Arab League, founded in 1945, has 22 member states across the Middle East and north Africa and aims to foster closer cooperation between countries in the Arab world.

Britain’s foreign secretary said on Sunday that the government will not outsource its foreign policy following further criticism over the country’s position on the Iran war from President Donald Trump.

Yvette Cooper told BBC News that it was important to “learn the lessons” from the Iraq war in 2003 and its aftermath, when British forces fought alongside their US counterparts.

She said “it is our job as the UK government to decide what’s in the UK national interest and that doesn’t mean simply agreeing with other countries or outsourcing our foreign policy to other countries.”

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer opted against granting the US military permission to use British bases for the first wave of military action, but then said the UK would engage in defensive operations after Iran attacked countries throughout the Middle East.

On hearing that the UK was reducing the time it would take one of its two aircraft carriers, the HMS Prince of Wales, to set sail for any deployment, Trump said “we don’t need them any longer.”

Car owners and drivers in Bangladesh waited for hours in long queues on Sunday to collect fuel for their vehicles amid fear that the ongoing war in the Middle East involving Iran would create a serious fuel crisis.

Many waited overnight at fuel stations in Dhaka to get fuel under a government rationing system allowing cars and bikes to collect a limited amount of fuel.

Others have resorted to panic-buying as fuel pump owners say they were under severe pressure for higher demand.

Bangladesh imports roughly 95% of its fuel oil and 70% of its gas, predominantly from the Middle East.

The government said on Sunday six vessels carrying liquefied natural gas, furnace oil, liquefied petroleum gas and condensate have already arrived at the country’s main Chattogram seaport from the Middle East and East Asian countries to ease the crisis.

Separately, another five vessels, carrying LNG, LPG and diesel, are en route to Bangladesh.

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday prayed the « roar of bombs » in the Middle East will cease, as the war trigged by US-Israeli air strikes on Iran extended into a ninth day.

« We raise our humble prayer to the Lord, that the roar of the bombs may cease, the weapons may fall silent and a space for dialogue may open in which the voices of the peoples may be heard, » the pope said at the end of the Angelus prayer.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard vowed on Sunday to step up attacks against Israel and US assets in the Middle East as Israel continue to pound Iran with devastating strikes, the Iranian state-run news agency reported.

The guard said “the scale and depth” of its missile and drone attacks will increase following what it called “the brutality” of US and Israeli strikes, according to IRNA news agency.

More than 100 Iranians, including diplomats, were evacuated from Beirut overnight on a Russian plane, a Lebanese official told the AFP news agency on Sunday.

« A total of 117 Iranians, including diplomats and embassy staff, were evacuated on a Russian plane that left Beirut overnight from Saturday to Sunday, » the official said on condition of anonymity.

The evacuation comes after Lebanon’s government on Thursday banned any activity by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, a main backer of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The United Arab Emirates’ defence ministry said on Sunday it intercepted all 16 missiles fired from Iran, while a 17th fell into the sea.

It says it intercepted most of the drones, but four fell in UAE territory.

The ministry says it is ready to “firmly confront” the threats.

Iran’s president earlier on Sunday threatened to increase attacks on US targets across the region in the face of ongoing strikes. 

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday that they had launched missiles towards the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Bersheeva, as well as an airbase in Jordan.

« The 28th wave of the Operation Honest Promise 4 was launched by the next-generation missiles of the Guards aerospace force against the areas of Beersheva, Tel Aviv, and the Al-Azraq airbase, » the Guards said in a statement, according to state TV.

President Emmanuel Macron will visit Cyprus on Monday, his office said, as France deploys warships to the Mediterranean following a drone attack on Cyprus days ago.

Macron will meet Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to show « solidarity » and detail moves to « strengthen security around Cyprus and in the eastern Mediterranean », the Élysée said on Sunday.

The visit will happen as the nearby Middle East region is gripped by war pitting US and Israel against Iran.

Cypriot and British officials haven’t said where the Shahed drone that hit the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri came from, but speculation is that it was the work of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.

Warplanes intercepted a pair of drones in a second attempted strike on the base on Monday.

The strikes prompted Macron to order France’s Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier to the Mediterranean and a frigate and air defence units to Cyprus.

The Iranian Red Crescent warned people in Tehran to take extra precautions to avoid toxic amounts of pollutants in the air stemming from a fire that broke out after Israeli struck multiple oil storage depots late on Saturday. Heavy, black smoke from the fires blocked out the sun on Sunday morning.

The Red Crescent advised the public to avoid turning on air conditioners or going outside immediately after rainfall due to concerns about toxic acid rain.

The Red Crescent also encouraged people to protect exposed food and to gargle salt water to clean the throat from oily soot particles they may have inhaled. Tehran’s governor recommended everyone wear masks outside.

A Pakistani driver was killed overnight when debris from an aerial interception fell on a vehicle in Dubai, authorities said on Sunday.

It’s the second death of a Pakistani national there in recent days.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed grief over the deaths of the two Pakistani nationals in Dubai.

Two other civilians, from Nepal and Bangladesh, have been killed by falling missile debris in Dubai since the US and Israel launched a war against Iran nine days ago that triggered retaliatory strikes by Iran on Gulf countries. 

Authorities in Lebanon said on Sunday that an Israeli strike on a Beirut hotel killed four people.

The Israeli military said it carried out a « precise strike » in Beirut targeting commanders from the foreign operations arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the Quds Force.

In southern Lebanon, where Israel has been fighting the Iran-backed group Hezbollah, the health ministry said eight people were killed in strikes on more than 20 towns and villages.

US and Israeli strikes in Iran have killed 200 children and around 200 women, the Iranian Health Ministry said on Sunday.

They are among more than 1,200 people killed in the war, spokesman Hossein Kermanpour said in a social media post.

He said more than 1,000 others, including about 400 women, have been injured since fighting erupted on 28 February. 

The body tasked with selecting Iran’s new supreme leader has reached a decision, members said on Sunday, although the name has yet to be announced.

« The most suitable candidate, approved by the majority of the Assembly of Experts, has been determined, » said Mohsen Heydari, a member of the selection body who represents Khuzestan province, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency.

Another member, Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, confirmed in a video carried by Iran’s Fars news agency that « a firm opinion reflecting the majority view has been reached. »

Iran’s supreme leader is chosen by the 88-strong body of senior clerics who themselves are elected by popular vote.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades, was killed in joint US-Israeli air strikes on 28 February in the opening salvo of the war that is now in its ninth day.

Iran’s parliament speaker said on Sunday that oil prices will continue to soar, inflicting pain on the global economy as long as the war in the Middle East goes on.

Oil prices have soared since the US and Israel attacked Iran on 28 February, reaching their highest levels since 2023.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude jumped 8.5% to $92.69 (€79.76) on Friday, up from nearly $70 (€60) a barrel just late last week.

Meanwhile, benchmark US crude climbed 12.2%, to $90.90 (€78.22) a barrel on Friday.

“If the war continues like this, there will be neither a way to sell oil nor the ability to produce it,” Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a social media post.

He said the war is not only impacting the US, but also the Middle East and the whole world “due to Netanyahu’s delusions,” referring to the Israeli prime minister.

The Israeli military issued a warning to Iran on Sunday that it will “continue to pursue” every successor of the country’s former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

« Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which has not convened for decades, will soon gather in the city of Qom. We want to tell you that the hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor,” a post on the IDF’s Farsi-language account on X said.

« We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning. »

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran for decades, was killed in joint US-Israeli air strikes on 28 February in the opening salvo of the war that is now in its ninth day.

Dozens of other senior leadership and military figures were also killed in that strike.

Fuel distribution in the Iranian capital has been « temporarily interrupted » after US and Israeli strikes on oil depots in and near the city, an official said on Sunday.

« Due to damage to the fuel supply network, distribution has been temporarily interrupted, » said Tehran’s governor Mohammad Sadegh Motamedian, as quoted by the official IRNA news agency.

« The problem is being resolved, » he added.

As Iranian drones and missiles target parts of the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates says it is defending its territory while working to prevent the conflict from spreading further across the region.

In a briefing to L’Observatoire de l’Europe and select media outlets in Abu Dhabi, Emirati officials say the country had been preparing for instability long before the latest escalation.

Jane Witherspoon and Toby Gregory have this special report.

Iran’s president has threatened to step up attacks on American targets throughout the Middle East as the US and Israel press ahead with their air campaign.

“When we are attacked, we have no choice but to respond. The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” President Masoud Pezeshkian said in video comments on Sunday.

“Our Iran, our country, will not bow easily in the face of bullying, oppression or aggression — and it never has.”

Pezeshkian appeared to be backtracking from conciliatory comments toward his Gulf neighbours on Saturday. Those comments, in which he appeared to apologise for attacks on their soil, were quickly contradicted by Iranian hard-liners.

Pezeshkian said Iran is not looking for a battle against neighbouring Arab countries, many of which host American military bases.

“They are our brothers,” he said, accusing the US of trying to pit the region’s countries against one another.

Many Iranian attacks have gone beyond US bases in the region, striking energy facilities, hotels and cities.

Three Indonesian crew members are missing after the United Arab Emirates-flagged tugboat Musaffah 2 sank in the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, Jakarta’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

« One Indonesian survivor is currently receiving burn treatment at a hospital in the city of Khasab, Oman. The other three Indonesians are still being searched for by the local authorities, » the ministry said on Saturday.

Before it sank, the Musaffah 2 experienced an explosion that caused it to catch fire, the statement said, adding that an investigation is ongoing by local authorities.

Explosions hit Iran’s central Yazd province on Sunday, state media reported, as the war rages with the United States and Israel.

It was not immediately clear what was hit in the strikes but the official IRNA news agency said the blasts occurred on the periphery of Yazd city.

Earlier explosions were reported in other parts of the country including the Iranian capital Tehran and the central Isfahan province.

L’Observatoire de l’Europe correspondents in Doha observed at least six Airbus and Boeing passenger flights taking off on Sunday morning after Qatar Airways announced the resumption of limited flights through a safe operating corridor.

These take-offs did not appear on aviation portal Flightradar24 indicating they departed with their transponders off as a safety precaution.

However, Flightradar24 showed these flights briefly taxiing for departure, with only one of them showing its destination as Frankfurt.

Qatar Airways said on Saturday it would operate flights to London, Paris, Madrid, Rome, Frankfurt and Madrid. Up to 8,000 passengers are reported to have been stranded in Qatar with the government covering the costs of hotel accommodation and extending their visas.

Air raid alerts are sounding again in Dubai after a prolonged and intense wave of Iranian drone and missile attacks on Saturday night, L’Observatoire de l’Europe correspondents in the city say.

Our teams on the ground will update with more information as they get it.

Sri Lanka discharged 22 Iranian crew from hospital who were rescued from life rafts after their warship was sunk by a US submarine, officials said on Sunday.

The crew had been treated at Karapitiya Hospital in the southern port city of Galle since Wednesday after the IRIS Dena was torpedoed just outside Sri Lanka’s territorial waters.

The attack on Dena was the first military strike far outside the Middle East since the United States and Israel launched their war on Iran a week ago.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty called for de-escalation on Sunday to stop the war in the Middle East from expanding even further.

Abdelatty’s comments were made during a phone call on Saturday evening with his Saudi counterpart, Faisal bin Farhan, according to a statement by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry.

Israel’s military said on Sunday that it had struck a series of fighter jets that pre-revolutionary Iran purchased from the United States.

The fleet of F-14s parked at Isfahan Airport, south of Tehran, was a pillar of the Iranian air force and historically used to defend its airspace.

The Israeli military did not say whether the jets were destroyed. It also said it had struck detection and air defence systems.

The United States and Israel hit five oil facilities in overnight strikes in and near the Iranian capital, an official told state TV.

« Last night, four oil depots and a petroleum products transport centre in Tehran and the Alborz were attacked by enemy aircraft, » the CEO of the National Iranian Oil Products Distribution Company Keramat Veyskarami told state TV.

He added that the five facilities « were damaged » but the « fire was brought under control. »

Air raid sirens sounded across Israel early on Sunday, warning of incoming missiles from Iran, with no reports of damage or casualties.

Israeli military statements said air defences were responding to at least four waves of « missiles launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel » within about five hours.

Alerts were activated across much of northern, southern and central Israel including in major cities like Tel Aviv, Haifa and Beersheba, according to the army’s Home Front Command, which ordered residents to go into shelters or safe rooms.

The alerts were later lifted, with the military saying, « it is now permitted to leave protected spaces in all areas of the country. »

Israeli media reported that several missiles were launched and most had been intercepted.

Falling missile debris injured three people and damaged a university building in Bahrain on Sunday, the interior ministry said, as Iran pressed its air campaign against neighbouring Gulf states.

« As a result of the blatant Iranian aggression, 3 people were injured and material damage was inflicted on a university building in the Muharraq area after missile fragments fell, » the ministry said in a statement, referring to an island area northwest of Manama.

Bahrain also said a water desalination plant was damaged in the drone attack.

The Israeli military said it launched a wave of strikes « across Iran » on Sunday, targeting military sites.

A military statement said it had « initiated a wave of strikes targeting the Iranian terror regime military infrastructure across Iran. »

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country « will be forced to respond » to any attack or invasion attempt from a neighbouring country, in remarks aired by state TV on Sunday.

If Iran’s enemies « try to use any country to attack or invade our land, we will be forced to respond to that attack. Responding does not mean we have disputes with that country or wish to harm its people. We would be responding out of necessity, » said Pezeshkian.

On Saturday the president apologised to neighbouring countries hosting US military bases for attacks on their territory.

A large tower in Kuwait City is on fire as several civilian facilities in the Gulf country have been damaged by falling debris after drone interceptions, the army said on Sunday.

Kuwait’s military said air defence systems were intercepting missile and drone attacks, as Iran continues its strikes across the region.

« Kuwaiti air defences are currently engaging hostile missile and drone attacks, » the military said in a post on X, adding that explosion sounds were the result of interceptions by air defence systems.