Iran launched a fresh wave of missiles toward Israel in the wee hours of Monday under the authority of its newly appointed Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, marking the first major military action since he succeeded his slain father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, amid an escalating Middle East conflict.
Iranian state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting said the missiles were fired toward what Tehran calls "occupied territories", with images circulating on state media showing a projectile bearing the slogan “At Your Command, Sayyid Mojtaba.”
The strikes came hours after Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts formally appointed the 56-year-old cleric as the country’s new supreme leader. The 88-member body said the decision was taken by a decisive vote despite what it described as “the brutal aggression of criminal America and the evil Zionist regime.”
Mojtaba Khamenei becomes the third supreme leader of the Islamic Republic since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. His appointment comes nine days after joint US-Israeli strikes killed Ali Khamenei on February 28, triggering a regional conflict that has since expanded across West Asia.
The younger Khamenei, widely viewed as a hardliner with close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is expected to maintain the policies of his father, who ruled Iran for nearly four decades after succeeding the country’s first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.
Soon after the announcement, the IRGC pledged loyalty to the new leader, saying it stood ready for “complete obedience and self-sacrifice in carrying out the divine commands” of Mojtaba Khamenei.
Born in 1969 in Mashhad, Mojtaba Khamenei studied at religious seminaries in Qom and long worked inside his father’s office, cultivating strong ties with the Revolutionary Guards and conservative political networks.
Although he rarely appeared publicly and never held a major government post, analysts have long considered him a powerful figure behind the scenes.
His appointment has, however, drawn criticism abroad.
US President Donald Trump had previously described him as a “lightweight” and suggested Washington should have a say in Iran’s leadership transition, while Israel warned that any successor to Ali Khamenei could become a military target.
The move has also sparked debate within Iran, as the Islamic Republic was founded in opposition to hereditary rule after the overthrow of the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Meanwhile, the conflict continues to spread across the Gulf, with explosions reported in the Qatari capital Doha, home to a major US military base, on Monday.
Qatar’s defence ministry said its air defences intercepted a missile, as Iran continued retaliatory strikes across the region following the US-Israeli air campaign launched against Iran on February 28.
Saudi Arabia said it intercepted and destroyed two drones heading toward the Shaybah oil field in the southeast of the kingdom, while Kuwait reported that its air defence systems were working to intercept incoming missiles and drones after the country was targeted by seven missiles and five drones a day earlier.
In Bahrain, several people were injured in a drone strike on the island of Sitra, authorities said, as the Gulf kingdom, host to the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet, continues to be a frequent target of Iranian retaliation.
The U.S. has ordered non-emergency embassy staff to leave Saudi Arabia after drone attacks hit the US embassy in Riyadh last week and damaged American diplomatic facilities in Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian warned that Tehran would respond against neighbouring countries if their territory was used for attacks on Iran.
The intensifying conflict has shaken global energy markets, with benchmark crude prices surging above $100 a barrel for the first time since the early phase of Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump has, nonetheless, dismissed the spike as a “small price to pay” for eliminating what Washington describes as Iran’s nuclear threat, although stock markets in energy-dependent economies such as Japan and South Korea opened sharply lower on Monday.
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