Iran insists new supreme leader ISN’T dead: Live updates

Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi has said in an interview with London-based pan-Arab news outlet Alaraby Aljadeed that Mojtaba Khamenei is ‘in good health’ and ‘fully controlling the situation’.

He said Iran welcomes any ‘regional initiative that lead to a fair end of the war’, and Hormuz is ‘open to everyone except US ships and [US] allies’.

Araghchi has said ‘there is no particular initiative on the table so far to end the war’.

Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen in public since his appointment on March 8.

His first public address was read by a presenter during a broadcast by state media on March 12.

In an interview with NBC News yesterday, the president questioned whether Iran’s new supreme leader is ‘even alive’.

He said: ‘I don’t know if he’s even alive. So far, nobody’s been able to show him…

‘The only one making a presentation is they read a so-called statement from him.

‘I’m hearing he’s not alive, and if he is, he should do something very smart for his country, and that’s surrender… Some of them think he’s alive but very badly wounded.’

In response to Donald Trump’s claim last night that Iran wanted a deal, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has ‘never asked for a ceasefire, we have never asked even for negotiation’.

Trump said he was unwilling to agree to the deal he claims Iran put forward ‘because the terms are not good enough yet’.

Mr Araghchi told CBS News: ‘We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us.

‘This is a war of choice by President Trump and the United States, and we are going to continue our self defence.’

The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) announced it is expanding the scope of its strikes against the Iranian regime’s infrastructure to include more areas in western and central Iran.

The IDF said it aims to degrade the regime’s ‘command and control capabilities’.

In the same announcement, it said the Israeli Air Force completed a wave of strikes targeting the regime’s headquarters in Hamedan, western Iran, earlier on Sunday.

The IDF said it struck several command centres belonging to the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps and the Basij Forces.

‘These command centres served the regime’s elements for managing ongoing activities, as well as for planning and advancing terror operations against the State of Israel and other countries in the Middle East,’ it said.

It said the strikes are part of ‘an ongoing effort focused on deepening the damage to the core operational systems and foundations of the Iranian regime’.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 850 people have now been killed in Israeli attacks since the start of the recent conflict in the Middle East.

The figure covers the period since March 2, when Israel launched strikes in Lebanon after Hezbollah fired rockets towards the country.

Earlier, we brought you pictures of the wreckage in Tel Aviv following a series of strikes, some of which made it through defences.

A man could be seen staggering away after a blast in footage shared by the force.

Now Israeli police have confirmed four people have suffered minor injuries following a cluster bomb attack on the city.

A man in his 60s is in moderate condition after suffering glass shard wounds to the head in the Bnei Brak area.

A man in his 70s is in a mild condition after suffering blast injuries in the Ramat Gan area.

Two women, aged 46 and 18, are both also in a mild condition suffering from ringing in the ears following a blast in the Petah Tikva area.

The Israeli armed forces have plans for ‘at least three more weeks of war in Iran’, IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin told CNN.

During this time, operations would result in thousands more targets being struck.

He added: ‘We are ready, in coordination with our US allies, with plans through at least the Jewish holiday of Passover, about three weeks from now.

‘And we have deeper plans for even three weeks beyond that.’

Furthermore, the IDF is ‘not working according to a stopwatch, or a timetable, but rather to achieve our goals’, Mr Defrin insisted.

Iran’s new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei has not been seen since he took power last Sunday, with speculation mounting that he is seriously injured or even dead.

Indeed, his selection came somewhat out of left field with his name not appearing on his father’s famous list of three potential successors last summer.

And now US intelligence has revealed that the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was cautious about Mojtaba taking the reins in Iran, CBS reports.

He perceived his son as not particularly bright and unqualified to become a leader.

Mojtaba never served in a government body before he was selected Supreme Leader and is generally regarded as being inexperienced.

Strikes started raining down on Tel Aviv earlier today with most of the Iranian missiles shot down by Israeli defences.

But some are making it through and hitting targets, the BBC reports, with panicked residents of the ‘built up area’ rushing onto the streets to inspect the damage and see if any loved ones were caught up in the attacks.

‘In front of us we can see the impact, a couple of cars have been completely destroyed, fires are burning and there’s bit of a sense of panic amongst the people here,’ a report adds.

The Fujairah oil industry zone in the United Arab Emirates was on Saturday targeted by a drone strike which sent huge plumes of black smoke billowing into the air.

The blaze was caused by ‘falling debris following the successful interception of a drone by air defenses’, according to Fujairah officials.

Bloomberg now reports oil loading operations are back underway at the major port, which sits just 70 miles from the practically-closed Strait of Hormuz, offering an alternative route.

Meanwhile in the Gulf, the United Arab Emirates has confirmed it has blocked a further four ballistic missiles and six drones fired from Iran.

Six people from the UAE have died and 142 have sustained ‘minor and moderate injuries’ in such attacks since the war began, according to the country’s ministry of defence.

It added that in total 298 ballistic missiles, 15 cruise missiles, and 1,606 drones have targeted the UAE in the past fortnight.