Fearing assassination, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei names three potential successors

With Israel having said that he 'should not continue to exist', Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has named three senior clerics as potential successors should he be slain, reports The New York Times.
Khamenei would view his assassination as martyrdom, the report, quoting officials, said. The 86-year-old has left his residence and is now sheltering in a bunker but that may not be enough to foil an Israeli bid to take him out.
It may be recalled that on the first day of the ongoing war, an Israeli strike killed Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC's Air Force, along with other senior air force leaders as they held a meeting at an underground command centre.
Israeli defence minister Israel Katz had issued the statement threatening Khamenei's existence after Iranian strikes on a hospital and residential buildings in Israel earlier this week. Katz claimed the strikes could not have happened without a personal order from Khamenei.

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