Khamenei's hardline son Mojtaba appointed Iran's new leader

Iran on Monday named Mojtaba Khamenei to succeed his father Ali Khamenei as supreme leader, signalling that hardliners remain firmly in charge, as the week-old U.S.-Israeli war with Iran sent oil prices surging and Asian stock markets into a nosedive.



As the war entered its 10th day, fresh missile and drone strikes by Israel and Iran reverberated across the Middle East.



Pope Leo on Sunday warned of "a tragedy of enormous proportions" due to the "widespread climate of hatred and fear" in Iran and across the region.



"Let us raise our humble prayer to the Lord that the roar of bombs may cease, that weapons may fall silent, and that space may be opened for dialogue in which the voices of peoples can be heard", Leo said at the Angelus prayer in St. Peter's Square.



The Israeli military said on Monday it had begun a wave of attacks in central Iran and had struck infrastructure belonging to Hezbollah militants in Beirut.



Iran and its proxies appeared to have launched attacks across the region too, with rocket and drone strikes targeting a U.S. diplomatic facility near Baghdad's international airport that were intercepted by C-RAM defence system, said police sources.



A drone strike targeted a U.S. military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, security sources said, while Saudi authorities reported intercepting a drone east of its northern Jawf region.