Trump slams Mojtaba Khamenei’s appointment as Iran projects defiance
US president, who had warned against selecting Mojtaba Khamenei to lead Iran, says new supreme leader may not ‘last’.
A woman holds posters of Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and his slain father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during a rally supporting the new Iranian supreme leader in Tehran, Iran, March 9 [Vahid Salemi/AP Photo]
Summary
Global oil prices have fallen in early trading in Asia on Tuesday – they had soared to $115 a barrel at one point on Monday
The drop comes as Donald Trump says the Iran war will be over “pretty quickly” – but the US has not “won enough” yet
The US president is also threatening Tehran with “death, fire, and fury” if it disrupts shipping in the Strait of Hormuz
Earlier, Trump suggested US operations against Iran could end soon, saying “I think the war is very complete, pretty much”
In Australia, five members of the Iranian women’s football team have been granted humanitarian visas after their elimination in the Asian Cup
UK Defence Secretary John Healey says a drone that hit a British base in Cyprus last week came from either Lebanon or Iraq
Iran responds to Trumppublished at 06:11
The Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps has responded to Trump’s comments that the war in Iran would end soon, saying that they will “determine the end of the war”.
Tehran will not allow “one litre of oil” to be exported from the region if the US and Israeli attacks continue, the IRGC says, according to Reuters.
Oil prices have fluctuated amid rising tensions over the Strait of Hormuz, which is crucial to the global energy market as around a fifth of the world’s oil passes through the narrow waterway.
- Recap: No end in sight after 10 days of war.
Khamenei
Ten days after the US-Israel war with Iran began, the conflict’s impact has widened, affecting several countries in the Middle East and sending global oil prices surging. Iranian officials have selected the late supreme leader’s son as his successor but Trump has signalled Mojtaba Khamenei does not have his support. Previously, Trump said he wanted a say in the selection of Iran’s new leader.
Here is a round up of key developments in the war:
- Speaking in Florida, US President Donald Trump says although the US has had many military victories in Iran and the war would be completed soon, the US is “going to go further”. “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” Trump told Republican lawmakers
- Trump describes the war as “an excursion” from his policy priorities but says it is important because he believes Iran was going to attack the US and Israel first
- The president, however, does acknowledge the war’s economic and social impacts at home, saying the tumbling stocks will rise again soon and that US personnel deaths were unavoidable
- His comments come on the same day Trump had a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin and as the US military publicly identified a seventh service member death since the war began late last month. The total US death toll has risen to eight
- Across the Middle East, deaths have also been reported in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. The Israeli military have continued to launch strikes inside Iran
- The UK chancellor says inflation is likely to rise at home as Britain signals support for the release of oil reserves by G7 member countries to help counter rising oil prices
- French President Emmanuel Macron has also been in Cyprus which has seen some strikes since the war began. The UK and other European nations have announced they are sending more military assets to Europe’s southern front
- And finally, players of Iran’s women’s national football team who are currently in Australia have been granted humanitarian visas to stay
Members of Iranian football team granted humanitarian visas in Australiapublished at 03:08
Katy Watson and Simon Atkinson
Reporting from the Gold Coast
Image source,AFP via Getty ImagesImage caption, Five members of the Iran women’s football team are understood to be claiming asylum
Five members of the Iranian women’s football team have been granted humanitarian visas in Australia after their elimination in the Asian Cup, the government in Canberra says.
The women had been due to fly home, but supporters had raised fears for their safety after the team declined to sing the national anthem ahead of their match against South Korea last week.
This prompted criticism in Iran, with one conservative commentator accusing the team of being “wartime traitors” and pushing for harsh punishment.
Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the women “were moved to a safe location” by Australian police. He said other squad members had been told they are welcome to stay in the country.
“They want to be clear they are not political activists. They are athletes who want to be safe,” he said, adding that talks had been going on over several days.
anian attack kills one person in Bahrain, ministry sayspublished at 02:53
One person has been killed and multiple people injured in Bahrain after an Iranian attack, the Gulf country’s ministry says.
Bahrain’s interior ministry says the Iranian attack was on a residential building in Manama, the country’s capital city.
“Initial reports indicate one person died and others were injured in a blatant Iranian attack targeting a residential building in the capital,” the ministry says.
Watch: How worried are Americans about the rising petrol prices?published at 05:24
Rising fuel prices are already forcing a change of habits to cut costs among drivers in the US who spoke to the BBC.
Petrol prices have jumped by around 50 cents (37p) in some states in the last week, a change that is being felt by drivers.
Hear their thoughts in this video:
Media caption, How worried are Americans about rising petrol prices from the Iran war?
Team bus arrives at hotel where Iranian women’s football team has been stayingpublished at 05:11
Simon Atkinson
Reporting from the Gold Coast, AustraliaThere is movement at the hotel where the Iranian women’s football team has been staying in Australia. The team bus has pulled up.
No confirmation but suggestions they are going to go to a local airport, either Gold Coast or Brisbane and then onwards on to a international flight, although none of this is confirmed.
Trump intervention on Iranian footballers comes after US deported Iranian asylum seekerspublished at 05:07
As we reported earlier, five members of the Iranian women’s football team have been granted humanitarian visas in Australia after their elimination in the Asian Cup.
On Monday, Trump demanded Australia “give asylum” to the women’s football team. “The US will take them if you won’t,” he added.
Around an hour later, Trump posted again to say he had spoken to Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and “five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way”.
Trump’s post appeared to also suggest some of the team feared for the safety of their families back in Iran and so felt they must “go back”.
“In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!” Trump said.
But Trump’s intervention on the Iranian footballers in Australia comes just months after his administration deported Iranian asylum seekers back to Iran.
His administration put all asylum decisions on hold at the end of last year, and has stopped issuing immigrant visas for citizens from dozens of countries including Iran. It has said the administration wants to bring “an end to the abuse” of the system.
Last year, two groups of Iranians – including people whose asylum applications had been unsuccessful – were deported from the US back to Iran. The groups reportedly included members of the LGBT community, who face severe legal and social repercussions in Iran.
Image source,Getty ImagesImage caption, The Iranian women’s football team had been taking part in the Asian Cup in Australia
About 700,000 displaced in Lebanon, officials saypublished at 04:44
The widening conflict has displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Lebanon, according to the government.
About 700,000 people have registered themselves as displaced on the government’s humanitarian assistance portal, and the government has opened more than 560 shelters, according to Lebanon’s minister of social affairs, Haneen Sayed.
The UN’s World Food Programme in Lebanon says it has reached 200,000 people with food and cash assistance since the crisis began.
Israel has bombed several suburbs in the capital Beirut in recent days, after the Iran-backed group Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel following Israel’s killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hezbollah has ‘no other option’ but resistance, says officialpublished at 04:31
Image source,ReutersA Hezbollah official has vowed that the group will continue to defend itself against Israel “whatever the cost”.
In a televised address, reported by AFP news agency and local media, Mohamed Raad, the head of Hezbollah’s parliamentary bloc, says the group has “no other option” but “resistance”.
It follows Lebanese President Joseph Aoun calling for a “complete ceasefire with a cessation of all Israeli land, air, and sea attacks on Lebanon”.
Iran’s new untested leader faces an existential battlepublished at 04:16
Lyse Doucet
Chief international correspondent
Image source,AFP via Getty ImagesA leader who has never been fully tested takes the helm in Iran when its theocracy faces its greatest test in five decades.
Continuity and connections have pulled Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, to the top after the assassination of his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the first salvos of this war.
But Iran’s third supreme leader since its 1979 revolution takes charge as the Islamic Republic confronts an existential battle.
For those who still mourn the loss of the many thousands killed in that crackdown on those protests, a harsh, hardline regime seems set to become even harsher.
Mojtaba Khamenei worked for decades in his father’s shadow; he knows all the details about how the deep state works when it confronts external threats and internal upheaval.
And this war is no longer just a political fight; it’s intensely personal. It’s also about revenge.
Mojtaba Khamenei lost not just his father in the Israeli strike on the supreme leader’s compound, but also his mother, Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh, his wife Zahra Haddad-Adel, as well as a son, on that fateful Saturday morning.
Trump is warning that Mojtaba Khamenei “won’t last long”. He is in Israel’s sights too, with Defence Minister Israel Katz calling him “an unequivocal target”.
So Khamenei may still remain in the shadows for a while. It will deepen the mystery around this reclusive cleric.
- Read more analysis on the leader who is seen by forces fighting America and Israel as the best chance to see the war through
Trump warns of ‘death, fire, and fury’ if Iran disrupts global oil passagewaypublished at 04:05
President Trump has issued another warning to Iran about disrupting shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
“If Iran does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz, they will be hit by the United States of America TWENTY TIMES HARDER than they have been hit thus far,” Trump says in an online statement.
About 20% of the world’s oil passes through the strait and the war has severely reduced sea traffic and sent global oil prices soaring.
“Additionally, we will take out easily destroyable targets that will make it virtually impossible for Iran to ever be built back, as a Nation, again — Death, Fire, and Fury will reign upon them — But I hope, and pray, that it does not happen!” he says.
Oil prices fall after Trump signals that war will end soonpublished at 03:52
Osmond Chia
Business reporterGlobal oil prices fell in early Tuesday morning trading in Asia.
Brent was down by about 8.5% at $92.50 (£68.85) a barrel. US-traded oil also fell around 9%, to $88.60 a barrel.
The prices are still about 30% higher than they were at the start of the conflict.
The drop follows US President Donald Trump’s remarks on Monday that the war will be over “very soon”.
Asian markets appear to have been given a boost by the dip in oil prices in early trade. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index was up by 2.8% and South Korea’s Kospi exchange rose by more than 5%.
Indexes in Asia were dealt a heavy blow by the surge oil prices as many countries in the region are big customers of the Gulf states.
Image source,Getty Images
Canada holds emergency debate over Iran war involvementpublished at 03:34
Canadian lawmakers in the House of Commons are making their views on the Iran war known today during a “take note” debate – a special parliamentary debate that allows MPs to weigh in on issues that aren’t immediately on the lower-house floor.
Liberal MP Wayne Long requested the debate to focus on the “hostilities in Iran and the Middle East and the impact for Canadians abroad”, according to CBC. But Prime Minister Mark Carney is not attending.
Carney, a Liberal, initially said that Canada has long supported neutralising the “grave global threat” that Iran poses but that he takes that position “with regret”. After facing criticism, he tried to strike a balance on his remarks by saying his support is not “a blank cheque” and suggested that Canada could provide Gulf allies with defence if they asked for help.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is criticising Carney for having a “contradictory” response to the conflict, as well as sitting out Monday’s debate. Other conservatives are questioning the Liberal position on the strikes, saying they have been inconsistent.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand said on Monday that the “focus must be on rapid de-escalation.” She reiterated that Canada has not been involved in the strikes on Iran, but also does not want Iran to have nuclear weapons.
Amid an internet blackout, Iranians connect to share their fearpublished at 03:24
Ghoncheh Habibiazad
Senior reporter, BBC PersianIt’s still very difficult to contact those inside Iran amid the internet outage, but some connect momentarily.
From what I’ve heard from those inside, there has been some temporary power outage in Tehran and the nearby city of Karaj following strikes on both cities.
“The electricity was out for around 30 minutes. I just want this to end once and for all,” said a man in his 30s from Tehran.
“There were some fluctuations, but I’ll tolerate this situation as long as the regime is gone,” said another man in his 30s, from Karaj.
“I’m getting tired of this situation. The whole war is overwhelming. Some scenarios for the future and for the people of Iran are truly frightening,” said a man in his 20s from Karaj.
“I’m feeling terrible. They hit a street near us today. I just wanted to be able to sleep tonight. I’ve had a horrible day. Our youth has been wasted,” said a man in his 20s from Tehran.
Russian cooperation with Iran could strain Moscow’s relationship with Trumppublished at 02:35
Liza Fokht
BBC News Russian, reporting from Berlin
Image source,ReutersImage caption, President Trump, beside Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, on Air Force One
Trump’s call with Putin earlier followed several reports indicating that Russia has been helping Iran in its conflict with the US and Israel.
Over the weekend, several American outlets, including The Washington Post, The New York Times, and the Associated Press, cited anonymous officials claiming that Moscow was providing Tehran with intelligence that helped it to target military personnel and assets in the Middle East. Russia has not officially confirmed it is helping Iran.
But Moscow has condemned the strikes against Iran, calling them a “reckless step”.
Theoretically, helping Iran attack US targets could strain Moscow’s relationship with the Trump administration.
The US and Russia met several times this year for talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine — talks in which the Kremlin has been hoping Washington would put pressure on Kyiv.
The White House has not said whether Russia is indeed helping Iran, but insists that such assistance would make little difference.
“If you take a look at what’s happened to Iran in the last week, if they’re getting information, it’s not helping them much,” Trump said yesterday while speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One.
His special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who is leading negotiations with Russia, also stopped short of confirming whether Russia was indeed sharing intelligence with Iran.
However, according to Witkoff, he “firmly” warned Moscow not to help Tehran.
What Trump has said about Iran todaypublished at 02:15
Image source,ReutersFrom interviewing with several news outlets to speaking at a Republican conference to delivering a formal press briefing, President Trump has had a busy day discussing the war with Iran.
Here’s a timeline of Trump’s remarks throughout today:
- He told CBS News “I think the war is very complete, pretty much”, and said the US was “very far ahead of schedule”
- Speaking to NBC, he left open the prospect of acquiring Iranian oil, saying “certainly people have talked about it”
- In an interview with the New York Post, he said the administration was “nowhere near” making a decision on whether to order US troops into Iran
- Speaking to Republican lawmakers, Trump said the US was drawn into a “short-term” military operation in Iran to “get rid of some very evil people”
- He went on to say: “We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough”
- Trump told the New York Post he is “not happy” with Iran’s new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, but at his press briefing later did not make clear who he wants to take his place – or how that will be achieved
- At his press briefing, Trump reiterated that the operation in Iran has been a “tremendous success”, but also added that he wants to ensure Iran cannot develop nuclear weaponry “for a very long time” – a much bigger task
- The US still has targets in Iran, Trump tells reporters, but they could be taken out “in one day”
- Still, he says the war will be over “very soon”
Is Venezuela Trump’s template for Iran’s future?published at 02:00
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Travelling with the presidentTrump just made an unscheduled stop at El Arepazo, a Venezuelan restaurant and community hub in Doral.
In January, I was at this exact same restaurant along with hundreds of Venezuelan expatriates who were celebrating the fall of Nicolas Maduro.
Trump was inside for less than 5 minutes, greeting enthusiastic supporters – one of whom yelled that Trump is the best president of his lifetime – and buying arepas, which he said he would eat on Air Force One.
He didn’t mention Iran – but his earlier comments suggested that he sees the fall of Maduro as a model that he hopes can be replicated in Iran, and, he hopes, earn the goodwill of Iranian exiles in cities such as Los Angeles that have been hoping for the fall of the ayatollahs.
It’s unclear if Trump will speak again tonight, but he did briefly say “I’ll see you on the plane” as he walked past reporters.
Image source,Reuters
Anthony Zurcher
North America correspondentIf coming into this press conference Donald Trump was giving hints that he was preparing to wrap up military operations against Iran – an “excursion”, as he called it – his latest comments have cast that into doubt.
The president said that what the US has done so far has been “tremendous success”. He ticked through how Iran’s Navy has been sunk, its Air Force has been destroyed, and its radar and anti-aircraft equipment disabled.
But he added that he wanted to ensure that Iran could not develop weaponry to target the US, Israel or any American allies “for a very long time”.
That, however, is a bigger task. And, in the end, it might require the kind regime change that Trump has been unable to achieve so far.
Trump has not revealed who he thinks should lead Iranpublished at 01:43
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Travelling with the presidentTrump very clearly views the new supreme leader of Iran, the son of the slain Ayatollah Khamenei, as unacceptable.
But what he has yet to make clear is who his preferred option is, or how they would be able to take over the governance of the country.
At the same time, Trump says that Iran’s leadership is decimated, which begs the question of who exactly he wants to lead.
I asked Trump that, and his response is telling. He clearly wants someone internal, and said as much, explicitly saying that Venezuela’s Delcy Rodriguez is a model.
But many questions remain on Trump’s choice. By his own admission, many of Iran’s leaders are dead, and some moderate options have reportedly been killed in the US strikes.
In ‘conflicts like this, you always have death’ – Trumppublished at 01:35
A reporter has asked how many US deaths Trump is willing to endure in this war, after a seventh combat death of a US service member war was confirmed.
“When you have conflicts like this, you always have death,” Trump responds.
The president says he met with the families of the fallen troops at Dover Air Force Base two days ago.
Trump says all of the families had the same message for him: “[They said] ‘finish the job sir, please finish the job’.”
The news conference ends as the president gives the gathered reporters a thumbs-up and walks out.
BBC
Donald Trump says he is “not happy” with the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new supreme leader.
The United States president had warned repeatedly against electing the son of assassinated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to lead the country as the US-Israeli conflict with Iran intensified.
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“I’m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei. I want to be involved in the selection,” Trump told Time magazine on Friday.
Two days later, Iran’s Assembly of Experts did exactly that – it replaced the slain Khamenei with his 56-year-old son.
The decision was a show of defiance against the US president, who had been stressing for days that Iran would follow the path of Venezuela in selecting a leader willing to answer Washington’s demands.
“I think they made a big mistake,” Trump said on Monday of Khamenei’s appointment.
He also suggested that the new supreme leader may be targeted and killed like his father.
“I don’t know if it’s going to last. I think they made a mistake,” the US president said.
In an interview with the New York Post earlier, Trump declined to provide details about his plans for dealing with the new Iranian leader.
“Not going to tell you. I’m not happy with him,” he said.
Calls for killing the new Iranian leader
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of Trump, also acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was “not the change” the US was looking for.
“I believe it’s just a matter of time before he meets the same fate as that of his father — one of the most evil men on the planet,” Graham said on X.
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Mark Levin, a pro-Israel commentator close to Trump, who called for killing the elder Khamenei for weeks prior to the war, was quick to shift his messaging after Mojtaba was selected as his father’s successor.
Advertisement“Get the boy Khamenei!” Levin wrote in a social media post on Monday.
The US and Israel launched a joint attack on Iran on February 28, killing Khamenei and several top officials in the opening strikes, which were followed by thousands of attacks that devastated the country and claimed the lives of more than 1,250 people.
Iran responded with hundreds of missiles and drone launches against Israel and US military assets across the Middle East.
Iranian attacks have also hit energy installations and civilian targets in the Gulf region and largely succeeded in closing down the Hormuz Strait – a major shipping lane for the oil trade.
War has also broken out between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Despite the regional turmoil, which has led to a historic spike in oil prices, Trump has said that he is seeking Iran’s “unconditional surrender”.
He has also suggested that the war was “already won”.
The US president reiterated that sense of confidence on Monday, telling CBS News that the war is progressing “very far ahead of schedule”.
“I think the war is very complete, pretty much,” Trump said, adding that Iran has “nothing left” militarily.
But Trump’s repeated assertions that Iran is on the verge of collapse and that he would be involved in choosing the country’s next leader were met by ridicule in Tehran.
On Friday, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Iran’s fate would be decided by Iranians themselves, not by Jeffrey Epstein’s “gang”, referring to the late sex offender who had ties to rich and powerful figures in the US.
Ryan Costello, policy director at the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), said Trump’s rejection of Mojtaba Khamenei may have inadvertently boosted the newly elected supreme leader’s candidacy.
“It became not a question of who is the best candidate for the next supreme leader, but ‘what do we need to do to protect Iranian sovereignty in the face of this aggression and desire to dictate to Iran what we do internally,’” Costello told Al Jazeera.
“It’s possible Mojtaba Khamenei had the inside track all along, but I do think Trump’s disapproval made it very hard for the system to go in any other direction.”
Why Israel’s war on Hezbollah keeps returning ‘Intense’ blowback
Costello added that although Trump is setting a high ceiling for the war, the US president has lost control of the conflict.
“Trump had very different expectations coming in, that Iran was weak and that they would fold like a deck of cards in a matter of hours,” he said.
Instead, Iran appears to have been able to withstand the initial onslaught despite the heavy blows it absorbed from the US and Israel.
There have been no major defections or significant protests against the ruling system since the war began. And the Iranian military has managed to keep steady fire against Israel and the region.
With Hormuz closed, the price of oil skyrocketing and markets starting to feel the strain of the disruption, the blowback from the US-Israeli war has been “strong and intense”, said Costello.
“The notion that Trump was going to be able to dictate his will inside Iran is very much getting pushed back upon about 10 days into the conflict,” he added.
Some of Trump’s Democratic rivals at home have underscored the selection of Mojtaba Khamenei to accuse the US president of lacking a clear vision for the war that he and Israel started.
Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss said Trump replaced “an 86-year-old terrorist dictator with a 56-year-old terrorist dictator”, referring to the Khamenei father and son.
He predicted that the new supreme leader would escalate attacks across the region and “race for nuclear capability”. Iran denies seeking a nuclear weapon.
“Mr President, wtf is your plan?” Auchincloss wrote in a social media post.
Aljazeera
