Iran Just Suffered Another Devastating Blow

( PJ Media )

Iran's mullahs thought they had a plan to replace their fallen tyrant. Israel just turned that plan to rubble.

As you know, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ruled Iran with an iron fist for nearly 37 years. A joint U.S.-Israel airstrike campaign finally took him out over the weekend. The conflict may not be officially over yet, but the hostilities may not last long at this rate.

According to the Associated Press, with Khamenei now dead, Iran’s constitution provides a process for selecting a new Supreme Leader. On Sunday, Iran formed a three-man leadership council to handle the supreme leader’s powers temporarily.

As outlined in its constitution, Iran on Sunday formed a council to assume leadership duties and govern the country.The council is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, are its members who will step in and “temporarily assume all the duties of leadership.”

Under Iranian law, an 88-member Assembly of Experts must hustle to name Khamenei's successor. Top names floated include former President Hassan Rouhani, the founder’s grandson, Hassan Khomeini, Khamenei’s own son, Mojtaba, Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi, and Qom hardliner Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri. Mojtaba lurks as the family insider pick. Hassan Khomeini offers a softer face. Rouhani brings negotiation cred. But the assembly holds the real cards.

Or it did.

Fox News Chief Foreign Correspondent Trey Yingst dropped a bombshell. Israel "just struck" the "gathering where the Iranians were meeting to choose a new supreme leader."

“But I'm told by a senior Israeli official that the Israelis just struck the Supreme Council gathering where the Iranians were meeting to choose a new supreme leader,” Yingst reported. “This is a significant development and again, speaks to the Israeli intelligence about this war. They just targeted the meeting in Tehran where what's left of the leadership was gathering to choose a new supreme leader.”

The Times of Israel also confirms this report.

“An Israeli defense source confirms that the Israeli Air Force struck a building in the Iranian city of Qom where senior clerics had gathered to elect Iran’s new supreme leader,” the paper reported. “The Assembly of Experts has 88 members, though it is unclear how many of them were at the building at the time of the strike, according to the official.”

Iranian media also confirmed the attack, according to ynet news:

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.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.”

This is bound to be a devastating blow for the regime.