March 3, 2026, 5:35 p.mMarch 3, 2026, 5:35 p.m
BREAKING: Iran’s Assembly of Experts building in Qom has been hit by airstrikes.
The Assembly of Experts is a council of roughly 90 senior clerics responsible for selecting Iran’s next Supreme Leader.pic.twitter.com/5H7sHtMMwU
— Steve Hanke (@steve_hanke) March 3, 2026
The so-called expert council is said to have been discussing Ali Khamenei’s successor in this building when an Israeli missile hit.source: x.com
According to media reports, the building of an expert council of influential clerics in Iran was hit and severely damaged in an attack in the city of Qom. However, there were conflicting reports from Israel and Iran on the question of whether a committee of Iranian clerics to determine a successor to Ayatollah Khamenei was meeting there at the time of the attack. Head of state and religious leader Khamenei was killed in an Israeli attack on Saturday.
The Iranian news agency Tasnim reported that US-Israeli forces attacked the building of the Secretariat of the Council of Experts in Qom. According to initial information, the building was empty at the time of the attack and there were no people there. Residential houses and businesses in the area were also damaged by the rocket attack. Several residents and passers-by were injured.
Mossad: “It doesn’t matter who is elected today”
Last night, the site of the Council of Experts in Tehran had already been the target of attacks by fighter jets from the US and Israeli armed forces.
Israeli media, however, reported, citing security circles, that a vote had taken place there at the time of the attack. However, apparently not all 88 members of the expert council were present, but significantly fewer. The reports could not initially be independently verified.
The Israeli foreign secret service Mossad published a video in Persian in a post on “It doesn’t matter who is elected today, their fate is already sealed,” the post says. “Only the Iranian people will elect their future leader.” (sda/dpa)