‘You’re a target’ — Israel warns Khamenei’s successor

The IDF warned clerics selecting Iran’s next supreme leader they could be targeted.

By World Israel News Staff

A senior Israeli military spokesman warned that whoever succeeds slain Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will also be targeted for assassination by the Jewish state.

“After the elimination of the tyrant Khamenei, the Iranian terrorist regime is attempting to regroup and select a new leader, as it is expected that the Iranian Assembly of Experts, which has not convened for forty years, will meet soon in the city of Qom,” Israeli Defense Forces Arabic-language spokesman Avichay Adraee posted on his X account Sunday.

The Assembly of Experts, a clerical council tasked with appointing and overseeing the country’s top religious authority, is the body responsible for selecting Iran’s supreme leader.

Adraee warned that Israel would target Khamenei’s successor, along with members of the Assembly of Experts.

“I would like to emphasize that the long arm of the State of Israel will continue to pursue the [new Ayatollah] and everyone who attempts to appoint him. We warn everyone planning to participate in the session to select the caliph: We will not hesitate to target you as well.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a similar warning earlier in the week, saying any future Iranian leader who continues the Islamic regime’s agenda would face the same fate.

“Any leader selected by the Iranian terror regime to continue leading the plan for Israel’s destruction, threatening the United States, the free world and countries in the region, and suppressing the Iranian people, will be a certain target for assassination, no matter his name or where he hides,” Katz wrote on X last Wednesday.

On Sunday afternoon, Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the council had chosen a new supreme leader. Alamolhoda told the state news agency Mehr that the council’s head, Hosseini Bushehri, would soon publicly release the name of the cleric selected to lead the Islamic Republic.

Analysts say several candidates are under consideration. Among the most frequently mentioned is Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of the slain leader.

However, another Assembly of Experts member, Mohsen Heidari Al-Kathir, told Farsi-language media that the elder Khamenei had not expressed a specific preference regarding who should succeed him.