US military says seventh service member dies in Iran operations

Iran’s state television on Sunday said the country's new supreme leader will be announced soon.

“The third leader of the Islamic Republic will be announced soon,” the news channel of Iran’s state broadcaster Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), said in a ticker.

Iran International reported on Tuesday, that the Assembly of Experts had selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, as the next leader under pressure from Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Five days later, the Assembly of Experts has yet to publicly announce the choice.

In recent days, some members of the Assembly of Experts denied that Mojtaba Khamenei had been selected and said a decision on the next leader had not yet been made.

Sources told Iran International that the delay in announcing the new supreme leader was partly due to opposition from some Assembly of Experts members who warned they would openly oppose Mojtaba Khamenei’s selection, saying some internal procedures of the body had not been followed.

Egypt’s foreign minister called for the formation of a joint Arab force to protect Arab states’ sovereignty following Iran’s attacks on neighboring Arab countries, during an emergency Arab League meeting chaired by the United Arab Emirates, the foreign ministry said.

“The Foreign Minister noted the importance of activating the concept of Arab national security to preserve the security of Arab countries and protect their sovereignty,” Egypt’s foreign minister Badr Abdelatty said during a virtual meeting of the Arab League council at the ministerial level on Sunday, according to a foreign ministry statement.

“(He) pointed in this context to the need to activate frameworks for joint Arab cooperation to effectively deal with existing threats, including the formation of a joint Arab force,” the statement added.

Iran’s Assembly of Experts has elected a new leader with an overwhelming majority of votes, a member of the body said.

“With the majority of ‌votes, ​the person who will ​continue the path of ⁠Imam Khomeini and ‌the path of ​the martyr Imam Khamenei has ‌been chosen. The name ​of Khamenei will continue. The vote has ​been cast and will be announced soon,” Hosseinali Eshkevari, a representative of Gilan province in the Assembly of Experts, said.

The announcement comes days after Iran International reported that the Assembly of Experts had chosen Mojtaba Khamenei as the next supreme leader under pressure from the Revolutionary Guards.

The vessel, belonging to the Iranian army’s navy, docked at the port of Colombo on March 5 due to what was described as an “engine technical malfunction,” carrying 208 naval personnel, including 53 officers and 84 officer cadets.

The former official said the ship’s request for humanitarian assistance due to engine trouble was in fact a cover for a “mass escape” by the crew.

He said the crew’s decision stemmed from a deep collapse of their trust in the Islamic Republic amid the current war in Iran.

The source added that the sinking of the destroyer Dena by a US submarine further intensified this distrust, saying the incident showed the crew that the Islamic Republic does not care about the lives and fate of its forces.

The source said all 208 sailors had left the ship, were transferred to the Welisara naval base and are now under the supervision of Sri Lankan security authorities.

US President Donald Trump is considering the option of deploying special forces to seize Iran’s near-weapons-grade uranium, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday, citing three diplomatic officials briefed on the matter.