Media: Iran's new leader chosen

Iran's Council of Experts has chosen Ali Khamenei's son Mojtaba Khamenei as the country's next supreme leader. The decision was made under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), claims the opposition resource Iran International.

“The new leader must have religious status, many years of experience within the system and not create an independent center of power. The priority is preservation, not radical transformation,” Ravandi-Fadai, an expert on Iranian domestic policy, noted in a conversation with Caution Media.

The publication notes that Mojtab Khamenei is a protege of the IRGC, the most radical part of the Iranian elite, which actually controls the country and opposes any compromises with the United States. Earlier, Iran's Ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Ali Bahreini, ruled out any negotiations with the White House administration.

“At the moment, we very much doubt the feasibility of negotiations... The only language to talk with the United States is the language of defense. I don’t think now is the right time for any negotiations on our part,” the ambassador said.

In turn, US President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said that Iranian negotiators directly threatened to create nuclear weapons.

“In that first meeting, both Iranian negotiators told us directly, without any shame, that they controlled 460 kilograms of 60 percent enriched uranium and that they knew that this was enough to create 11 nuclear bombs,” Witkoff said.

Trump announced the start of military operations against Iran on February 28. The United States and Israel launched joint massive missile attacks on Iranian territory. The first strikes killed Iran's former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been in power for 37 years.

Photo: Iran International