Newsweek LIVE - Iranian Clerics Choose New Supreme Leader: Latest Updates - Published Mar 08, 2026 at 05:25 AM EDT - By Ellie Cook Senior Defense Reporter

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LIVE

Iranian Clerics Choose New Supreme Leader: Latest Updates

Published

Mar 08, 2026 at 05:25 AM EDT

By Ellie Cook

Senior Defense Reporter

Iran has selected a new leader, state-aligned media reported on Sunday, after the country's longtime supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike last weekend.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency reported the 88-member Assembly of Experts in the country, responsible for picking a new head of the regime, had elected a replacement after days of uncertainty over who would succeed Khamenei.

Ayatollah Hosseini Bushehri, a senior figure in the assembly, will publicly announce the decision, Mehr reported.

Israel has threatened to "pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor."

What To Know:

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait reported fresh Iranian attacks into Sunday.

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the U.S. was not responsible for an attack on a girls' elementary school that killed at least 165 people.

Trump also said the joint strike campaign, launched more than a week ago, had "decimated" Iran's military.

The president has dismissed threats from a senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, who said the U.S. "will pay" for persistent aerial assaults on Iran.

Iranian state media reported attacks on oil sites around Tehran and attacks on Isfahan, a major Iranian city housing sites linked to Iran's nuclear program.

Israel carried out new attacks in Lebanon early on Sunday.

Stay with Newsweek for the latest updates:

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35 min ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 08:52 AM EDT

UAE intercepts 16 ballistic missiles, more than 100 drones

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) said its air defenses intercepted 16 Iranian ballistic missiles and 113 drones on Sunday.

Another ballistic missile "fell into the sea" and four further drones landed in the country, the UAE's defense ministry said in a statement.

The UAE has said it detected a total of 238 ballistic missiles since February 28. Air defenses intercepted 221 of these missiles and 15 veered into the sea, according to UAE authorities.

Nearly 1,500 Iranian drones and eight cruise missiles have also been detected, the country's defense ministry added. Four people have been killed and 112 others injured.

1 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 07:46 AM EDT

Israel vows to ‘pursue’ future Iranian leader

Israel's military has vowed to hunt down any future Iranian leader elected by the current ruling figures, shortly after state-aligned Iranian media reported top officials in the country had selected a new leader.

"Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor," the IDF said in a post to its Farsi-language feed on Sunday.

Iran's semi-official Mehr news agency had reported the 88-member Assembly of Experts in the country, responsible for picking a new leader, had elected a replacement after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled for nearly four decades, was killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes last weekend.

Ayatollah Hosseini Bushehri, a senior figure in the assembly, will publicly announce the decision, Mehr reported.

1 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 07:33 AM EDT

Iran targets Israel, US bases in Kuwait, state media says

Iranian media is reporting that Iran has targeted the northern Israeli city of Haifa, the central area around Tel Aviv and U.S. military bases in the Middle East.

Iranian media, citing the country's army, said Tehran had struck ammunition depots, defensive positions, an intelligence collection site and tents housing personnel at Camp Arifjan, a U.S. base south of Kuwait City.

The six U.S. personnel known to have died since the start of U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran more than a week ago were killed in an Iranian strike on a port north of Camp Arifjan.

Iranian media also reported on Sunday Iranian strikes had targeted Camp Buehring, another U.S. base in Kuwait previously known as Camp Udairi.

The Fars news agency, closely associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), reported Iran had fired on the U.S.'s military base in Al-Azraq, Jordan, in recent strikes.

2 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 07:18 AM EDT

Israel says it has struck Iranian fighter jets at Isfahan

The Israeli military has also said it has struck Iranian fighter jets as part of renewed attacks on Iran.

The IDF said on Sunday it had struck an unspecified number of F-14 fighter jets at an airport in the central city of Isfahan the previous day. Israeli forces also said they had attacked air defense systems and equipment designed to detect aircraft.

As a reminder, Isfahan is an area closely associated with Iran's nuclear program, and has been previously targeted by the U.S. and Israel.

2 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 07:13 AM EDT

Israel strikes Lebanese capital

Israel has said it launched fresh attacks on Lebanon's capital, Beirut, including on senior officials from the Iranian military based in the city.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said it had carried out a "precise strike" on members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operating in Beirut overnight.

Lebanese media reported four people were killed at a hotel in western Beirut.

2 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 06:46 AM EDT

Three people injured, desalination plant damaged in Bahrain

Bahrain's government said three people had been injured and a water desalination plant damaged in fresh Iranian attacks on Sunday.

The three people were injured after missile fragments from an intercepted missile fell on a university building in Muharraq, just northeast of Manama, Bahrain's interior ministry said.

Aerial assaults from Tehran "indiscriminately attacked civilian targets and caused material damage" to the water plant, Bahrain's government added in a statement.

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Saturday accused the U.S. of striking a water desalination plant on Qeshm Island, just off of Iran's southern coast. Tehran's top diplomat said the water supply to 30 villages had been impacted and warned of "grave consequences."

3 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 06:24 AM EDT

Saudi Arabia reports new Iranian drone strikes

Saudi Arabia said in multiple updates overnight into Sunday it had intercepted 18 drone attacks on the country, including several unmanned vehicles around the capital, Riyadh.

A drone had homed in on the city's diplomatic quarter, housing international embassies, Saudi authorities said. No casualties or damage was reported in the attack.

Another drone headed for the country's Shaybah oil field, not far from the border with the United Arab Emirates, a defense ministry spokesperson said. The major oil field has been repeatedly targeted this month.

3 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 06:09 AM EDT

Clips show fire ripping through Kuwaiti tower

Footage and images circulating on social media on Sunday show a fire ripping through a Kuwaiti government building after the Gulf state said it had come under fresh drone attacks.

Kuwait's Public Institution for Social Security said its main building was targeted and had been damaged, according to statements carried by the country's national news agency.

A spokesperson for the Kuwaiti military separately said drones had struck fuel tanks at Kuwait's main international airport in a "direct" attack on the country's critical infrastructure.

Kuwait's armed forces had said overnight its air defenses were intercepting incoming drone and missile attacks, including three Iranian ballistic missiles.

3 hours ago

Mar 08, 2026 at 05:44 AM EDT

Iran ‘decimated,’ Trump says

Trump, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday, said the U.S. and Israel were "winning the war by a lot" and indicated the strikes would continue for "a little while longer."

"We've decimated their whole evil empire," Trump said. He had previously said U.S. strikes, dubbed Operation Epic Fury, could continue for several weeks.