Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency said Tuesday that no meeting of the Assembly of Experts was held at a building in Qom that Israel said it struck during a vote on a successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Earlier in the day, Israel said it targeted the building of the Assembly of Experts in the central-western city of Qom, the clerical body responsible under Iran’s constitution for choosing the next leader of the Islamic Republic following Khamenei’s killing.
IAF strike on Leadership Council
An Israeli security official said the military struck the site during a vote on a successor, noting that far fewer than the council’s 88 members were inside at the time.
Iranian media accounts disputed that version. Fars reported that no meeting took place at the building due to security concerns and that the site was empty.
“No meeting was held there,” the agency said, citing security fears and the need to protect the lives of representatives.
According to Fars, members of the Assembly continued their deliberations using a different voting method and were meeting in what it described as a secure environment. The report, quoting informed sources, said the final stages of selecting a new leader were underway and that an announcement could come within hours or days.
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.”
Regarding whether Khamenei had indicated preferred successors, Fars cited sources as saying he had not named any candidates and had left the decision to the Assembly. Over the years, however, he had outlined leadership traits, including opposition to what Iran describes as U.S. arrogance, courage and integrity, justice, awareness of timing and managerial strength.
Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported that the council’s offices in Qom were attacked and that its compound in Tehran was struck the previous night. Iranian media also reported airstrikes in areas around Tehran’s Revolution Square.
Shortly before the strike in Qom, the Mossad’s Persian-language account on X posted a message stating: “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 selected by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body. Although members are elected by the public, candidates must first be approved by the Guardian Council, whose members are appointed directly or indirectly by the supreme leader. The system has enabled the leadership to disqualify figures deemed insufficiently loyal to the Islamic Revolution.
The constitution requires the Assembly to convene to choose a new leader “as soon as possible.” Until then, the supreme leader’s powers are transferred to a temporary council composed of the president, the head of the judiciary and a representative of the Guardian Council chosen by the Expediency Council.
Earlier Tuesday, the IDF issued an evacuation warning in Persian for parts of Tehran, including the Hakimiya industrial zone and the area of Payam Airport in nearby Karaj, saying it would operate there in the coming hours.