Finally, the Assembly of Experts announced Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, who was killed on the first day of U.S. and Israeli attacks, as the new Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution. The announcement came after Hassan Rouhani had advised against introducing a new leader while the war was still ongoing. Observers interpret Mojtaba’s selection as a message to Donald Trump that the regime’s policies will continue along the same path as before, and that Mojtaba, seen as the choice of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC), will carry forward the policies of his father.

Shortly after Mojtaba’s selection, the Revolutionary Guard targeted Kuwait and Bahrain, reportedly non-military targets, signaling its determination to continue the same strategy as before. In the early hours following the announcement, regime media attempted to consolidate Mojtaba’s legitimacy by broadcasting declarations of allegiance from senior officials and affiliates of the system. Ali Larijani, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Masoud Pezeshkian, Mohammad Reza Aref, and Sadeq Larijani, along with several other clerics and officials, publicly pledged their loyalty to Mojtaba Khamenei. By the end of the ninth day, however, Hassan Rouhani and Javad Zarif had not yet taken a public position.

On the ninth day, extensive U.S. airstrikes on Iranian military positions across various cities, particularly Tehran, continued. As on the previous day, Israel bombed several oil reserves. As a result of strikes on refineries and oil storage facilities, Tehran’s air became heavily polluted and toxic due to widespread petroleum fires. Many residents suffering from respiratory problems were taken to hospitals. Despite rainfall, the air remains polluted and may become the source of numerous respiratory and physical health problems in the future.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Secretary of Energy and several other American officials stated that the United States had not been involved in the bombing of energy and oil reserves on the eighth day, and that those attacks had been carried out by Israel. Lindsey Graham advised Israel to avoid such strikes in the future, arguing that Iranians would need those oil resources to rebuild their lives after the fall of the current government.

As oil prices surpassed $110 per barrel, the Revolutionary Guard launched approximately 20 to 30 missiles, including Khorramshahr missile, Kheibar missile, and Fattah missile, toward Israel and several Arab countries in the Persian Gulf on the ninth day. Some of these missiles and several drones reportedly hit predetermined targets. Pete Hegseth, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, said in an interview with 60 Minutes on CBS that the United States is rapidly deploying interceptor missiles capable of destroying Iranian missiles and drones before they reach their targets. He added that surplus interceptor missiles would also be provided to Arab allies, although the U.S. Department of Defense is largely counting on the gradual erosion of Iran’s capabilities in the coming days.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Trump said that when the time comes, he and Netanyahu will jointly announce the end of the war. Trump did not provide a clear answer to whether Israel could continue its attacks if the United States chose to halt its own operations. Trump’s mention of ending the war on the ninth day, while global markets are experiencing the shock of rapidly rising oil prices, suggests that the current war may end sooner than the four to six weeks he had initially predicted.

Although the Iranian regime is attempting to project an image of normalcy, political analysts predict that the current regime has little chance of surviving in the near future, whether the war continues or comes to an end.