Tehran, Iran – Huge air strikes by the United States and Israel continue to hit Tehran and other cities as the Iranian establishment ponders its future while launching projectiles across the region.
The capital was rocked numerous times on Sunday after a series of attacks hit multiple neighbourhoods, with the Israeli army saying military centres were among the targets. Iranian authorities have largely refrained from discussing missile impacts, and internet connectivity remained almost entirely blocked for a second day.
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After Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and top commanders were killed in Tehran at the start of the war on Saturday, the remaining top authorities of the Islamic Republic are emphasising that the theocratic establishment has a clear path forward based on its own internal mechanisms.
By laws put into motion after the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, a clerical body called the Assembly of Experts is tasked with selecting the next supreme leader.
Masoud Pezeshkian, the Iranian president, said that a new leadership council “has begun its work” after the death of Khamenei. Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera the process should be complete within days.
Until that can happen, a three-member council will govern.
As members of the council, judiciary chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei and President Pezeshkian have vowed continuity. In a first video address on Sunday, Pezeshkian called on pro-establishment supporters to congregate at mosques and major city streets despite the war.
The third member was announced on Sunday to be Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a clerical member of the powerful constitutional watchdog known as the Guardian Council. The Expediency Council, an arbitration body, was tasked with selecting the jurisprudence expert for the new council.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was founded after the 1979 revolution and has since grown into a sizeable military and economic force, is also expected to play a key role.
Mohammad Pakpour, who was appointed as the commander-in-chief of the IRGC less than a year ago after his predecessor was assassinated during the 12-day war with Israel, was killed on Saturday. Abdolrahim Mousavi, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, Defence Council chief Ali Shamkhani, and police intelligence chief Gholam-Reza Rezaeian were also among those killed.
The IRGC vowed revenge, and launched what it called “the heaviest offensive operations in the history of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic against occupied lands [a reference to Israel] and the bases of American terrorists”.
Army chief Amir Hatami also pledged to continue defending the country, as the army claimed its fighter jets completed bombing runs of US bases across the region without offering footage.
Police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said his forces are prepared to fight for “public safety” as the US and Israel have openly called on the Iranian people to protest in the streets in the foreseeable future with the goal of overthrowing the establishment.
Security chief Ali Larijani, another prominent figure in the power structure of the Islamic Republic, backed the constitutional process for deciding future leadership while making an outreach to countries battling incoming Iranian missiles and drones.
In a post on X in Arabic, he said Tehran does not wish to attack its neighbours, but considers US bases in those countries to be “American territory”. He also released a separate all-caps post in English, saying, “TODAY WE WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE THAT THEY HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED BEFORE”.
Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a top IRGC commander and former security chief who acted as Khamenei’s appointed representative to the Supreme Defence Council, vowed that the body will continue its work despite the killing of its top members, including Shamkhani. The council was formed after the war with Israel last June to bolster defence strategies after Iran suffered heavy damages from Israeli and US bombing of its nuclear and military sites.
Hassan Khomeini, the grandchild of founding Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also praised the 86-year-old Khamenei after he was killed, calling him a “hero of the Iranian people and Muslims around the world”.
Khomeini, a relatively moderate cleric, has been among people reported by Western media to have a chance of becoming the next supreme leader. Khomeini has not addressed the issue, but on Sunday emphasised that defending the “holy establishment of the Islamic Republic” was of paramount importance.
Former President Hassan Rouhani, who last week rejected being part of a power grab at the height of January’s nationwide protests, said he supports the temporary council, armed forces and the government in an effort to preserve the establishment.
Former President Mohammad Khatami condemned the killing of Khamenei as an effort to harm Iran’s “independence and unity”. He also echoed his previous calls for reforms to disappoint “enemies” of the theocratic establishment.
Some local media reports said Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the controversial populist figure who was Iran’s president from 2005 to 2013, was killed along with several bodyguards after being targeted by Israel. The state-linked Iranian Labour News Agency denied that he was dead, citing an informed source on Sunday, but did not elaborate.
Multiple videos from the scene of the strikes on 72 Square in the Narmak neighbourhood of eastern Tehran on Saturday appeared to show the area of Ahmadinejad’s residence targeted. A school located in the same area was damaged, and at least two children were killed, according to local authorities, who separately said more than 150 people, many of them children, were killed in another school strike in the city of Minab in southern Iran.
As US and Israeli officials promise to keep attacking Iran for days or weeks using hundreds of warplanes to target state authorities, it remains to be seen where the balance of power lies inside Iran.
For now, Iranian authorities are united in mourning Khamenei, who stood unchallenged at the helm for 36 years.
The government has announced seven days of public holidays and 40 days of mourning, and has organised large gatherings to commemorate Khamenei, including on Sunday night.