Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attends the annual Quds, or Jerusalem Day rally in Tehran, Iran, on May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, file)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Mojtaba Khamenei, son of Iran’s late supreme leader, has been named his successor, Iranian state TV announced Sunday, as the nine-day war that began with his father’s killing took a dramatic turn.

The younger Khamenei had long been considered a contender for the post, even before an Israeli strike killed his father, and despite never being elected or appointed to a government position.

Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard answers to the supreme leader, and now Khamenei will have the central say in war strategy. The announcement came after signs of a rift among Iranian officials as the country awaited a decision by the 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of clerics that selects the supreme leader.

There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of supreme leader since the Islamic Revolution almost a half-century ago.

A secretive figure, the younger Khamenei has not been seen publicly for days. He now stands at the heart of Iran’s theocracy and will have final say over all matters of state. He will serve as commander-in-chief of the military and Revolutionary Guard, and gains a stockpile of highly enriched uranium that could be used to build a nuclear weapon, if he chooses to decree it.

He also faces the likelihood of U.S. criticism. “Khamenei’s son is unacceptable to me,” U.S. President Donald Trump has said. “We want someone that will bring harmony and peace to Iran.”

Trump told ABC News earlier Sunday he wants a say in who comes to power once the war is over; a new leader “is not going to last long” without his approval.

The war toll on civilian targets grew as Bahrain accused Iran of striking a desalination plant vital to drinking water supplies, and oil depots in Tehran smoldered following overnight Israeli strikes.

In a sign of rising regional anger, the Arab League chief lashed out at Iran for its “reckless policy” of attacking neighbors, including ones that host U.S. forces. Gulf countries have been struck by hundreds of missiles and drones since the war started on Feb. 28, and Iran’s president has vowed to expand attacks.

Saudi Arabia reported its first deaths, saying a military projectile fell onto a residential area and killed two people of Indian and Bangladeshi nationality. Foreign residents and workers have made up most of the war’s deaths in Gulf nations.

Israel reported its first soldier deaths, saying two were killed in southern Lebanon, where its military is fighting the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah. The U.S. military said a service member died of injuries from an Iranian attack on troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1. Seven U.S. soldiers have now been killed.

The war has killed at least 1,230 people in Iran, at least 397 in Lebanon and at least 11 in Israel, according to officials.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian backtracked from conciliatory comments a day earlier in which he apologized for attacks on neighbors’ soil. Iranian hard-liners had swiftly contradicted him, saying war strategy wouldn’t change.

“The more pressure they impose on us, the stronger our response will naturally be,” Pezeshkian said Sunday.

Pezeshkian has urged neighboring states not to take part in U.S. and Israeli attacks. The U.S. strikes have not come from the Gulf Arab governments but from U.S. bases and vessels in the region.

“The geography of some countries in the region — both overtly and covertly — is in the hands of the enemy, and those points are used against our country in acts of aggression. Intense attacks on these targets will continue,” judiciary chief Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei wrote on X on Saturday.

Mohseni-Ejei and Pezeshkian are part of the three-member leadership council overseeing Iran since Khamenei was killed.

Facilities attacked

Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia reported additional Iranian missiles launched toward them.

Bahrain accused Iran of indiscriminately attacking civilian targets and damaging one of its desalination plants, though its electricity and water authority said supplies remained online.

Desalination plants supply water to millions of residents in the region and thousands of stranded travelers, raising new fears of catastrophic risks in parched desert nations.

The desalination plant strike came after Iran said a U.S. airstrike damaged a desalination plant there. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the strike on Qeshm Island in the Strait of Hormuz had cut into the water supply to 30 villages.

He warned that in doing so “the U.S. set this precedent, not Iran.”

In response, CENTCOM spokesperson U.S. Navy Capt. Tim Hawkins said that “U.S. forces do not target civilians – period.”

Iranian authorities also said Israel’s overnight strikes on four oil storage tankers and a petroleum transfer terminal killed four people. Witnesses in Tehran said the smoke was so thick that it looked as if the sun had not risen.

Israel’s military said the oil depots were being used by Iran’s military for fuel to launch missiles.

The Iranian Red Crescent Society warned Tehran residents to take precautions against toxic air pollution and the risk of acid rain.

It also said about 10,000 civilian structures across the country had been damaged, including homes, schools and almost three dozen health facilities.