Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s slain supreme leader, has been named as the Islamic Republic’s next ruler, authorities announced on Monday, as Tehran widened its attacks across the Mideast to strike oil and water facilities crucial to its desert sheikdoms.With Iran’s theocracy under assault by the US and Israel for more than a week, the country’s Assembly of Experts chose as the next supreme leader a secretive, 56-year-old cleric who maintains close ties to the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. 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 on February 28 during the war’s opening salvo.Regional anger grows and oil rises above USD 100 a barrelMarch 9, 2026 8:13 amOil depots in Tehran smouldered following overnight Israeli strikes. In a sign of rising regional anger, the Arab League chief lashed out at Iran for its “reckless policy” of attacking neighbours, including ones that host US forces. Saudi Arabia’s Defence Ministry said on Monday it intercepted a drone attacking the country’s massive Shaybah oil field. A day earlier, the country said a military projectile fell onto a residential area and killed two people of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality. AP