Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei successor as oil prices soar

This image taken from video from state TV shows Mojtaba Khamenei [AP Photo]

Iran named Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of the country’s late supreme leader, the Islamic Republic’s next ruler yesterday, putting a hard-line cleric in charge as the war spreading across the Middle East sent oil prices skyrocketing with Iran launching new attacks on regional energy infrastructure.

With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the United States and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose the secretive, 56-year-old cleric with close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard as the new supreme leader. The Guard has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since the younger Khamenei’s father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed Feb. 28 during the war’s opening salvo.

Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait of Hormuz has also all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane between the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman through which a fifth of the world’s oil is carried. Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to nearly $120 a barrel on Monday, about 65% higher than when the war started, before retreating slightly.

As global economic concerns grew, U.S. President Donald Trump downplayed the spike in prices.

“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” Trump wrote on social media.

Iran has targeted Israel and American bases in the region since the start of the war, and has also been launching missiles and drones at energy and water infrastructure.

Yesterday, a fire broke out at an oil facility that was attacked in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates. Bahrain’s only oil refinery was apparently also hit and Saudi Arabia said it had intercepted several drones attacking its Shaybah oil field.

Israel, meantime, claimed strikes on targets in Iran’s city of Isfahan, saying it hit command centers for the Revolutionary Guard and its volunteer Basij force, as well as a rocket engine production facility and missile launch sites. There was no immediate confirmation from Iran.

In Israel, sirens blared multiple times across the country as Iran’s drones and missiles were unrelenting. A woman was wounded by debris in central Israel.

Son seen as more hard-line than father

The younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war started, was long considered a potential successor — even before the Israeli strike killed his father. His wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed in the same Israeli strike that killed the 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Political figures within Iran have criticized handing over the supreme leader’s title based on heredity, thereby creating a clerical version of the rule of the shah, who was toppled during the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But top clerics in the Assembly of Experts likely wanted the younger Khamenei to prosecute the war.

Khamenei, who is seen as even more hard-line than his late father, will now be in charge of Iran’s armed forces and any decision about Tehran’s nuclear program.

While the country’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the U.S. bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, there’s still highly enriched uranium in Iran that’s a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did — build a nuclear bomb.

Israel has already described him as a potential target, while Trump had called him “unacceptable.”

“We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran,” Trump had said.

Both the Revolutionary Guard and the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah issued statements in support of Khamenei.

Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, praised the Assembly of Experts for “courageously” convening even as airstrikes continued in Tehran. He said the younger Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation.”

Regional anger grows as oil prices spike

Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following a thwarted drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.

The Foreign Ministry said Iranian attacks mean “further escalation which will have grave impact on the relations, currently and in the future.”

In addition to energy facilities in the UAE, authorities there said the capital of Abu Dhabi was targeted by Iranian missiles and two were hurt by shrapnel from interceptions.

Iran attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain’s only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.

Bahrain has also accused Iran of damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online. Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travelers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

Yesterday, Bahrain’s state oil company declared force majeure for its oil shipments, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported, a legal maneuver releasing a company of its contractual obligations because of extraordinary circumstances. It insisted that local demand could still be met. JON GAMBRELL, DUBAI, MDT/AP