Israel on Tuesday struck the building of the Assembly of Experts in the city of Qom in central-western Iran, the body responsible for choosing the next leader of the Islamic Republic following the killing of Ali Khamenei.
An Israeli security official said the IDF targeted the building during the vote on a successor, noting that far fewer than the council’s 88 members were inside at the time of the strike. In a separate Iranian report, however, it was said that the building was empty and that no one was present.
Strike on building of Iran’s Assembly of Experts
Iran’s Tasnim news agency also reported that the council’s offices in Qom were attacked and said that the council’s compound in Tehran was struck the previous night. At the same time, Iranian media reported that fighter jets were attacking areas around Tehran’s Revolution Square.
Ayatollah Ali Movahedi Kermani, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said earlier Tuesday that “the selection of the new leader will not be prolonged.”
Shortly before the strike on the council building, the Mossad’s Persian-language account on X posted a message saying, “No matter who is chosen today, his fate is sealed. Only the Iranian people will choose their future leader.”
Under Iran’s constitution, the supreme leader is chosen by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body. Although its members are elected by the public, candidates must first be approved by another body known as the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed directly or indirectly by the supreme leader. As a result, Khamenei exercised significant influence over the appointment of the senior clerics now responsible for selecting his successor, and those deemed rivals or insufficiently loyal to the values of the Islamic Revolution are disqualified in advance.
The Assembly of Experts is required to choose a supreme leader based on several criteria: the candidate must be a man, a cleric with political ability and “moral authority,” and loyal to the Islamic Republic. These criteria enable the body to exclude more moderate candidates who might support cooperation with the West or easing social and political repression inside Iran.
According to the constitution, the Assembly of Experts must convene to choose the next supreme leader “as soon as possible.” Until then, the supreme leader’s powers are transferred to a temporary council composed of three officials: the president, the head of the judiciary and a representative of the Guardian Council, who is selected by another body within the regime known as the Expediency Council.
Earlier, the IDF issued an evacuation warning in Persian for an industrial zone and an airport in Tehran, saying it would operate there in the coming hours.
Lt. Col. (res.) Kamal Penhasi, the IDF’s Persian-language spokesman, called on people in the Hakimiya industrial zone in Tehran and in the area of Payam Airport in Karaj to leave. “In the coming hours, the IDF will operate in the area,” the statement said.
The Washington Post reported that an overnight Iranian drone attack on the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia caused part of the roof of the main office building to collapse and filled the interior with smoke.
The report cited an internal State Department alert stating that “the office remains contaminated by smoke and part of its roof has collapsed,” adding that the damage from the Iranian drone strike was more extensive than initially reported.
Iran fired a cluster missile in the latest barrage toward the Tel Aviv area. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said 12 people were wounded in the latest barrage on the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.
In Bnei Brak, a woman around 40 was moderately wounded and 11 others were lightly injured. Two people were lightly hurt near Kibbutz Einat, one was lightly injured in Petah Tikva and one in Rosh Haayin.
Impact site in Rosh Haayin
(Photo: Yossi Damari)
First published: 16:32, 03.03.26