DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Oil prices surged and stock markets slid Monday after hard-line Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei was chosen to succeed his late father as Iran's supreme leader. His appointment, and new strikes on regional oil infrastructure, signaled that Iran was digging in 10 days into the war launched by the United States and Israel.
The war has choked off major supplies of oil and gas to world markets, led foreigners to flee from business hubs and prompted millions to seek shelter as bombs hit sites like military bases, government buildings, oil and water installations, hotels and at least one school.
Khamenei, a secretive 56-year-old cleric, is only the third supreme leader in the history of the Islamic Republic. He has close ties to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, which has been firing missiles and drones at Israel and Gulf Arab states since his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had ruled since 1989, was killed during the war's opening salvo.
The appointment suggests Tehran is not close to giving up on what it considers a fight for the Islamic theocracy's survival.
Government supporters pour into the streets
Thousands poured into a central square in Tehran and other locations in a show of allegiance to the new supreme leader, waving flags and shouting phrases like "Death to America" and "Death to Israel."
“America and Israel: you’ve failed and you will drown in the swamp you are stuck in,” said Abbas Ali Saeedipoor, one of the demonstrators.
Iranian authorities have long encouraged public shows of support for the Islamic Republic while violently cracking down on dissent. Thousands of people were killed and tens of thousands detained during mass protests against the elder Khamenei earlier this year.
Trump dismisses oil price concerns
Brent crude oil, the international standard, surged to nearly $120 a barrel Monday, about 65% higher than when the war started, before retreating below $100. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 600 points, or over 1.3%, shortly after opening — marking a drop of more than 6-1/2% from its all-time high close last month, though it later pared its losses.
Iran's attacks in the Strait of Hormuz have all but stopped tankers from using the shipping lane through which a fifth of the world's oil is carried, and Iranian drones and missiles have targeted oil and gas infrastructure in major producers.
“There is not an oil shortage,” U.S. President Donald Trump wrote on Truth Social overnight. “Prices will drop again soon,” he added, suggesting shipments from Venezuela to the U.S. could help offset the price spike.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is "well on our way" to achieving its objective, which he said was to eliminate Iran's ballistic missile stockpile, and its ability to produce and launch them. The administration has offered shifting rationales and timelines since the start of the conflict.
Elsewhere in the region, sirens blared multiple times across Israel on Monday amid unrelenting Iranian drones and missiles. A man was killed in central Israel in a missile strike, the first such death in Israel in a week, and a woman was wounded.
Israel said it was carrying out “a wide-scale wave of strikes” on the Iranian city of Isfahan, as well as the capital, Tehran and in southern Iran.
Turkey meanwhile said NATO defenses had intercepted a ballistic missile that entered the country’s airspace for the second time since the war started.
New Iranian leader seen as more hard-line than his father
The younger Khamenei, who has not been seen in public since the war started, was long considered a potential successor — even before the killing of his 86-year-old father. The younger Khamenei's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed in the same strike.
An Iranian state TV report suggested the younger Khamenei may have been wounded in that strike, though a state TV analyst later appeared to amend the report, saying he had been wounded in the 1980s Iran-Iraq war in which he served.
The younger Khamenei is seen as even less compromising than his late father, and as supreme leader has final say on all major policies, including war, peace and Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
Though Iran’s key nuclear sites are in tatters after the U.S. bombed them during the 12-day Israel-Iran war in June, it still has highly enriched uranium that’s a technical step away from weapons-grade levels. Khamenei could choose to do what his father never did — build a nuclear bomb.
President Masoud Pezeshkian, a relative moderate in Iran’s Shiite theocracy, welcomed the choice in a post on X. Top Iranian security official Ali Larijani, speaking to Iranian state television, said Mojtaba Khamenei had been trained by his father and “can handle this situation.”
Israel has already described Khamenei as a potential target, while Trump has called him “unacceptable” and dismissed him as a “lightweight.”
Regional anger grows as energy infrastructure is hit
Saudi Arabia lashed out at Iran following the drone attack on its massive Shaybah oil field, saying Tehran would be the “biggest loser” if it continues to attack Arab states.
In the UAE, home to the futuristic city of Dubai, authorities said two people were wounded by shrapnel from the interception of Iranian missiles over the capital, Abu Dhabi. By mid-afternoon, the Emirati Defense Ministry said 15 ballistic missiles and 18 drones were fired on the country on Monday.
Iran also attacked Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain, where it hit a residential area, wounding 32 people, including several children, according to authorities. Another attack appeared to have started a fire at Bahrain's only oil refinery, sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.
The U.S. State Department early Monday ordered nonessential personnel and families of all staff to leave Saudi Arabia following the escalation in attacks. Several other U.S. diplomatic missions have ordered all but key staff to leave.
The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and 11 in Israel, according to officials. Another person died in Israel of an asthma attack on her way to a shelter. Israel reported its first soldier deaths on Sunday, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where it is fighting Hezbollah. A total of seven U.S. service members have been killed.
UNICEF, the children's agency, reported that at least 83 children have been killed and 254 wounded in Lebanon since March 2.
“As military strikes continue across the country, children are being killed and injured at a horrifying rate, families are fleeing their homes in fear, and thousands of children are now sleeping in cold and overcrowded shelters,” it said.
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Magdy reported from Cairo and Keaten from Geneva. Associated Press journalists David Rising in Bangkok; Sam Metz in Ramallah, West Bank; Natalie Melzer in Nahariya, Israel; Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel; Sally Abou AlJoud in Beirut; Aamer Madhani in Doral, Florida; Lorne Cook in Brussels, Matthew Lee in Washington, and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed reporting.