Alireza Arafi was appointed today (1 March) as the jurist member of Iran’s Leadership Council, a body tasked with fulfilling the supreme leader’s role until the Assembly of Experts elects a new leader, ISNA news agency reported.
A cleric member of the Guardian Council, Arafi will be part of the temporary Leadership Council alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei.
- Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, state media confirm
- US and Israeli strikes on Iran extend into second day
- Iran retaliates with widening attacks on Gulf nations
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian vows revenge for Khamenei’s death
- US President Trump threatens to hit Iran with unprecedented force
- Global air travel disrupted as strikes keep hubs like Dubai airport closed
However, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry says it summoned the Iranian ambassador today, a day after the kingdom accused Tehran of targeting its territory with strikes.
“Foreign Ministry summons the Iranian ambassador to the Kingdom in response to Iran’s brazen attacks that targeted the Kingdom and a number of brotherly countries,” the ministry said in a statement on X.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today that attacks by the United States and Israel on Iran during US-Iran negotiations were “unacceptable”, according to state news agency Xinhua.
Wang said the “blatant killing of a sovereign leader” and the incitement of regime change were unacceptable.
China is calling for an immediate cessation of military action, a return to dialogue and negotiations as soon as possible, and joint opposition to unilateral actions, the minister said.
China’s ministry on Saturday expressed concern over the strikes and called for an immediate ceasefire, urging all sides to avoid escalation and to resume dialogue and negotiation.
It said Iran’s sovereignty, security and territorial integrity should be respected.
Xinhua said Washington’s use of military coercion was a “flagrant violation” of the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter and a departure from “fundamental norms of international relations”.
More than 1,000 demonstrators marched to the US and Israeli embassies in Athens today to protest against the strikes in Iran.
The protesters, largely affiliated with the Greek Communist Party, carried banners and placards reading “Hands off Iran” and “Close Souda base.”
Earlier in the day, Greece tightened security at the Souda naval base on the island of Crete, a key US strategic facility in the eastern Mediterranean.
Rows of blue police buses were deployed to cordon off the US and Israeli embassies.
Police sources estimated the crowd at more than 1,300 people.
At least 150 tankers, including crude oil and liquefied natural gas vessels, have dropped anchor in open Gulf waters beyond the Strait of Hormuz, shipping data has showed.
Dozens more were stationary on the other side of the chokepoint. The movements came after US and Israeli strikes on Iran plunged the region into a new war.
The tankers were clustered in open waters off the coasts of major Gulf oil producers, including Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as LNG giant Qatar, according to the Reuters news agency estimates based on ship-tracking data from the MarineTraffic platform.
Pope Leo has been giving his weekly address to pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square.
He said he was following events with “deep concern” and made an impassioned appeal to stop what he called a “spiral of violence”.
“I address a heartfelt appeal to the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable abyss,” he said.
“Stability and peace are not built through mutual threats or through weapons … but only through reasonable, genuine, and responsible dialogue.”
