Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz held a security assessment on Sunday in the underground command center with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and senior defense officials after being informed that Abu al-Qassem Baba’iyan, the newly appointed military secretary to Iran’s supreme leader, was killed.
Baba’iyan was appointed just days ago following the assassination of his predecessor in the opening strike.
Katz praised the IDF for the operation, saying, “Keep hunting them all.”
The IDF warned on Sunday that it would “continue to pursue” every supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, ahead of a gathering to elect a successor for slain Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which has not convened for decades, will soon gather in the city of Qom,” the IDF posted to its Farsi X account.
“The hand of the State of Israel will continue to pursue every successor and every person who seeks to appoint a successor,” the military added. “We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning!”
A member of the Assembly of Experts told Iranian media on Saturday that the top body would meet “within the next 24 hours” to pick the country’s next supreme leader.
Hossein Mozafari, one of the assembly’s 88 members, urged Iranians to “refrain from any speculation and the spreading of rumors regarding this matter” before the assembly officially convened for the vote.
Khamenei, 86, at the time of his death, was eliminated on Feb. 28 in the opening strike of “Operation Roaring Lion/Epic Fury,” the joint Israeli-U.S. military campaign against the Islamic Republic.
Mojtaba Khamenei, 56, the slain leader’s oldest son, is seen as a leading successor, having received backing from the regime’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The younger Khamenei has yet to appear in public since the strike that killed his father, mother, wife and son.
Israeli security officials believe that Mojtaba remains alive but was injured in an IDF airstrike, according to reports over the weekend.
IDF Spokesperson Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, asked during a press briefing on Saturday about the Assembly of Experts meeting, noted that the Israeli Air Force on March 3 targeted the premises of the body.
“We continue to strike the command and control systems of the Iranian terror regime,” Defrin told reporters. “This is part of that effort—and we will continue to strike their attempts to choose a terrorist leader.”
“Whomever they choose, that is up to them,” according to the military spokesperson. “We will continue to deepen the damage and prevent it.”
