Live. Iran security official says Khamenei transition process to begin on Sunday

Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani said the transition process following the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will begin on Sunday.

“An interim leadership council will soon be formed. The president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council will assume responsibility until the election of the next leader,” said Larijani, the head of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, who was an adviser to Khamenei.

“This council will be established as soon as possible. We are working to form it as early as today,” he said in an interview broadcast by state TV.

Iraq announced on Sunday a three-day mourning period after the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Government spokesman Bassem al-Awadi said in a statement that “with deep sorrow, we extend our condolences to the noble people of Iran and the entire Muslim world” after Khamenei was killed in “a blatant act of aggression.”

He said the government had announced three days of mourning, while urging an immediate cessation of military operations that “are driving the region to unprecedented levels of violence.”

Iran wields a significant influence in Iraqi politics and also backs armed groups, whose power has grown both politically and financially.

Iraq has for decades been a proxy battleground between the US and Iran.

The Coordination Framework, a ruling coalition of Shiite groups with varying degrees of links to Iran, said “with deep sorrow and profound grief, we mourn the passing of the martyred leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.”

His “blood will remain a guiding light for all generations” and “the curse will continue to haunt the murderous Zionists for all time”, the coalition added.

Influential cleric Moqtada Sadr meanwhile said in a statement “we extend our condolences to the Islamic world.”

The US Embassy in Bahrain said on Sunday that family members and non-essential personnel were authorised to leave Bahrain.

The US has large military installations in Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Bahrain said a missile attack targeted the US Navy’s 5th Fleet headquarters in the island kingdom and three buildings were damaged in the capital, Manama.

About 500 Shiite Muslims stormed the US Consulate in Pakistan’s port city of Karachi on Sunday, smashing windows hours after a major US and Israeli attack killed Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, police said.

Police and paramilitary forces used batons and fired tear gas to disperse the crowd, said Mohammad Jawad, a police official.

At least one protesters was killed and several others were wounded in clashes between protesters and security forces, he said.

The United Nations’ nuclear agency will hold an extraordinary meeting on Iran on Monday in the wake of the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic, aimed in part at Tehran’s atomic programme.

In a statement late on Saturday, the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said the meeting was at the request of Russia, a key ally of Tehran.

Iran had made the same request in a letter to IAEA chief Rafael Grossi on Saturday following the strikes, which led to the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

As a result, the agency will hold a “special session of the IAEA Board of Governors on matters related to military strikes of the United States and Israel against the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran”, the IAEA said in a statement.

That extraordinary meeting will precede an already scheduled session of the board, which represents 35 countries.

Following the strikes, the IAEA said it was “closely monitoring developments in the Middle East, and urges restraint to avoid any nuclear safety risks to people in the region.”

Western countries led by the United States and Israel, Iran’s arch-enemy, accuse the Islamic republic of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.

Tehran denies having such military ambitions, but insists on its right to this technology for civilian purposes.

Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani warned on Sunday against attempts to divide Iran following the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli strikes.

“Groups seeking to divide Iran should know that we will not tolerate it,” said Larijani, head of the Supreme National Security Council, in an interview broadcast on state TV, calling on Iranians to unite.

He also said the transition process to select a new supreme leader would begin later on Sunday but it is unclear how long this will take.

The commander of the US Central Command says his forces are taking part in military operations in the region during the first 24 hours of “Operation Epic Fury.”

“The President ordered bold action, and our brave Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen are answering the call,” a statement quoted the head of US Central Command, Admiral Brad Cooper, as saying.

The United States has thousands of military personnel stationed at bases all across the Persian Gulf and beginning on Saturday, these installations have been the targets of Iranian missile strikes.

Qatar’s Interior Ministry said eight people were injured early Sunday in Iranian strikes on the country, bringing the total number of wounded since the attacks began the previous day to 16.

The ministry added that the assaults caused “limited” material damage.

Officials urged residents to remain at home unless absolutely necessary and to keep roads clear for ambulances and emergency services.

US President Donald Trump warned Iran against escalating its attacks in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, after Tehran issued threats following its acknowledgment of the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

You can read more about the US president’s remarks and what could happen next in the article below by Marina Stoimenova.

Hundreds of Iraqis tried to breach Baghdad’s heavily guarded Green Zone, home to the US Embassy, after the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, a security source told AFP.

Footage shared on social media shows demonstrators hurling stones at security personnel, who responded with tear gas. An AFP reporter on the scene saw hundreds of people waving the flags of a pro-Iran armed faction.

The deaths of Admiral Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme Defence Council, and Major General Mohammad Pakpour, Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in Saturday’s US and Israeli attack on Tehran have been officially confirmed by state television.

An intelligence and a military source told CBS News late on Saturday that around 40 senior Iranian officials were killed in the strikes.