Iran moves to select next supreme leader within 24 hours — Report

A member of Iran’s Assembly of Experts said on Saturday that the body would meet within a day to choose the country’s next supreme leader, Iranian media reported.

“With divine assistance, this session will occur within the next twenty-four hours,” said Hossein Mozafari, one of the assembly’s 88 members, cited by the Fars news agency.

The statement came a week after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a US-Israeli attack.

Mozafari also urged Iranians to “refrain from any speculation and the spreading of rumours regarding this matter” as the assembly has not yet convened for a session.

US Slams Iran

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Meanwhile, the United States on Saturday condemned Iran’s drone strikes earlier this week on an Azerbaijan border region, describing the attack as a “needless escalation” of aggression by Tehran during the Middle East war.

The State Department said Thursday’s “unprovoked drone attack” targeted an airport and school in Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan bordering Iran, and that innocent civilians were injured.

“These strikes are a flagrant violation of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty and a needless escalation of Iran’s aggression,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said in a statement, adding that attacks on American partners in the region “are unacceptable and will be met with resolute US support for those partners.”

Similarly, explosions were heard on Saturday night in Iraq’s capital, Baghdad, and in the city of Erbil in the autonomous Kurdistan region, AFP journalists reported.

The cause of the loud bangs in Baghdad was still unknown, but a witness near the fortified Green Zone, which houses the US embassy, reported seeing air defences activated over the area.

Several drones have been intercepted near Baghdad airport since the start of the war in the Middle East.

In Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region, an AFP journalist reported hearing the sound of a drone followed by at least three loud bangs.

Since the start of the war, drones have repeatedly been intercepted over the city of Erbil, which is also home to a major US consulate complex.

AFP