Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to its interim leadership council, which will be at the helm of the country following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Sunday.
“The Expediency Discernment Council has elected Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as a member of the interim leadership council,” said expediency council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi in a post on X.
The interim council, which will also include the president and the head of the judiciary, will lead the country until the Assembly of Experts “elects a permanent leader as soon as possible,” he said.
Iran’s clerical leaders vowed to avenge the death of their supreme leader and launched a fresh wave of attacks on Sunday as Israel hit back at the capital, Tehran.
It came after the United States and Israel claimed to have killed Khamenei in a wave of strikes Saturday against targets in Iran, which sparked swift retaliation by the Islamic Republic.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a “declaration of war against Muslims” on Sunday, vowing vengeance.
Iranian security chief Ali Larijani then vowed to hit the US and Israel with a force never seen before.
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was named to an interim leadership council, that includes the president and head of the judiciary, to be at the helm of the country until a new permanent leader is selected.
Earlier, Iran’s army said it targeted on Sunday US bases in Iraq’s Kurdistan region and in the Gulf in response to the attack launched by the US and Israel.
“A few minutes ago, pilots of the air forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran successfully bombed US bases in the countries of the Persian Gulf and in the Kurdistan region of Iraq over several phases of operations,” Iran’s army said in a statement carried by state TV.
Air raid sirens sounded, and explosions were heard over Jerusalem on Sunday after the Israeli military said it had detected missiles launched from Iran towards Israel.
AFP correspondents heard blasts in Dubai, east of the Saudi capital Riyadh, across Bahrain’s capital Manama and Qatar, where thick black smoke was also seen rising on the horizon south of Doha.
A top Emirati official warned Iran on Sunday that “your war is not with your neighbours” and that retaliation against Gulf states was a “miscalculation.”
