A son of Iran’s late supreme leader is chosen to replace his father as war rages
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, center, attends the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran, Iran, on May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)
By: JON GAMBRELL
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mojtaba Khamenei, a son of Iran’s late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who was named as his successor Sunday, had long been considered a contender to the post even before an Israeli strike killed his father and despite the fact he had never been elected or appointed to a government position.
A secretive figure within the Islamic Republic, Mojtaba Khamenei was not seen publicly in the days after an Israeli airstrike targeting the supreme leader’s offices killed his 86-year-old father at the start of the war. Also killed in that strike were the younger Khamenei’s wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, who came from a family long associated with the country’s theocracy.
Trump says Iran war could be over soon, but oil disruption would trigger harsher US strikes
The coffin of Mehdi Hosseini, a man killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike, is carried for burial at Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
By: JON GAMBRELL, WILL WEISSERT and SAMY MAGDY
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump said Monday that the war against Iran could be short-lived, but he left open the possibility of an escalation in fighting if global oil supplies are disrupted by the Islamic Republic, which chose a new hard-line supreme leader.
Oil prices briefly shot to their highest level since 2022 a day after Iran selected Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his late father as Iran’s supreme leader. Investors saw it as a signal that Iran was digging in 10 days into the war launched by the United States and Israel.
But prices later fell and U.S. stocks rose on hopes that the war with Iran may not last much longer.
“We took a little excursion” to the Middle East “to get rid of some evil. And, I think you’ll see it’s going to be a short-term excursion,” Trump told Republican lawmakers at his golf club near Miami.
Trial opens in Miami for 4 men charged in the assassination of Haiti’s ex-president Jovenel Moïse
Artists paint a portrait of slain Haitian President Jovenel Moise near the presidential residence where he was assassinated two years ago in the Petion-ville area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, July 7, 2023. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph, File)
By: DAVID FISCHER
MIAMI (AP) — Greed, arrogance and power were the driving forces behind four men charged in the U.S. for the 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse, prosecutors said Tuesday during opening statements.
Federal prosecutors and defense attorneys began presenting opening statements in the trial in Miami for Arcangel Pretel Ortiz, Antonio Intriago, Walter Veintemilla and James Solages. They are charged with conspiring in South Florida to kidnap or kill Haiti’s former leader.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McLaughlin told the jury that the case wasn’t complicated: The defendants wanted to seize power and get rich.
“So arrogant and confident in themselves, the evidence will show, and thinking so little of the Republic of Haiti and its people, they actually thought they could pull it off,” McLaughlin said.
