Iran leadership selection meeting expected within 24 hours, cleric says

The Iranian navy warship's commander refused to allow the crew to abandon Dena despite the imminent threat, the source added.

The sailor’s father said some crew members argued with the commander, and the 32 crew members who survived were mainly sailors who managed to escape on lifeboats, according to the source.

A US submarine torpedoed Dena in the Indian Ocean on Wednesday, about 19 nautical miles from the southern Sri Lankan port of Galle, killing dozens of sailors and significantly expanding Washington’s campaign against Iran’s naval forces.

The sinking of the Dena — described by US War Secretary Pete Hegseth as a “quiet death” — marked the first time since World War II that the United States had torpedoed an enemy warship, underscoring the widening geographic reach of the conflict with Iran.

An internal US State Department cable dated March 6 seen by Reuters said the US urged Sri Lankan authorities not to return the 32 surviving sailors from Dena and the 208 sailors Sri Lanka rescued from naval auxiliary ship IRIS Booshehr.

Israeli strikes hit 16 aircraft belonging to the Quds Force, which oversees Iran's overseas military operations, at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran overnight, the Israeli military said on Saturday, adding the planes had been used to transfer weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The IDF said the strikes were part of a broader wave targeting military infrastructure in Tehran, including facilities at the airport.

It said Mehrabad Airport served as a central hub for the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to move weapons and cash to Iran-backed armed groups across the Middle East.

Several Iranian fighter jets that posed a threat to Israeli aircraft operating in Iranian airspace were also targeted, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The Israeli military also said measures were taken before the strikes to reduce harm to civilians, including the use of precision munitions, aerial surveillance and additional intelligence.

Ukrainian manufacturers of low-cost interceptor drones said they have the capacity to export them in large volumes, amid inquiries from the United States and the Middle East prompted by the Iran war, Reuters reported.

Ukraine has faced frequent attacks by drones during Russia’s full-scale invasion, many based on Iran’s Shahed design and now produced in Russia.

Many of those drones have been downed by air defenses including Western missiles, fighter jets, truck-mounted guns and interceptor drones.

Iran has apologized to its Middle East neighbors and promised not to fire at them anymore, US President Donald Trump said on Saturday.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Iran made that promise only because of what he called relentless US and Israeli attacks.

“Iran, which is being beat to HELL, has apologized and surrendered to its Middle East neighbors, and promised that it will not shoot at them anymore. This promise was only made because of the relentless U.S. and Israeli attack. They were looking to take over and rule the Middle East,” he wrote on Truth Social.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said in a televised speech on Saturday that he apologizes to neighboring countries, adding that the interim leadership council had instructed the armed forces to stop striking them unless attacks against Iran originate from those countries.

Trump said Iran had once sought to “take over and rule the Middle East” but is now “THE LOSER OF THE MIDDLE EAST.”

Iran, he added, would be “hit very hard” on Saturday and warned that additional areas and groups of people were under consideration for targeting.

Some of those targets, the US president said, had not previously been considered, citing Iran’s “bad behavior.”

Two influential hardline Iranian clerics called on Saturday for the swift selection of a new supreme leader following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli airstrikes, state media reported.

Hossein Nouri Hamedani urged the Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for choosing the new leader, to speed up the process of selecting a successor to Khamenei.

Naser Makarem Shirazi also said a new appointment was needed quickly to “help better organize the country’s affairs.”