The IDF struck the Assembly of Experts headquarters in Tehran on Tuesday while the body was meeting to choose a successor to Ali Khamenei. Multiple members were killed or wounded, according to Israel Hayom and Middle East Eye. Iranian state media claimed the Building had been evacuated before the strike — a claim that cannot be independently assessed while Iran's internet blackout holds connectivity at 1% of normal levels. No foreign journalists are operating inside Iran.
The timeline of the succession vote relative to the strike is unresolved. Whether the Assembly voted before the strike, in its chaotic aftermath, or reconvened in a dispersed emergency session at an alternate location has not been established by any source with direct knowledge. The Assembly's headquarters in Tehran had already been struck during the campaign's opening hours, when Chatham House analyst Sanam Vakil assessed that the body might not convene until operations wound down. It convened anyway — and was hit again.
The strike fits an established pattern of targeting Iran's institutional infrastructure. The IRGC's Sarallah headquarters, state broadcaster IRIB's Tehran offices, and now the body constitutionally responsible for choosing The Supreme Leader have all been struck. President Trump stated that Iran's "new leadership" had been specifically targeted. The progression from military sites to the state broadcaster to the succession body itself represents the systematic dismantling of institutional capacity — command, communications, and now political continuity.
Targeting a constitutional body during a succession process has no direct precedent in the conflict between these states. Iran's last leadership transition — when Ali Khamenei succeeded Ruhollah Khomeini in June 1989 — occurred peacefully, within hours of Khomeini's death, by a body that was intact and uncontested. This succession occurred under bombardment, in a communications blackout, with members of the selecting body among the casualties. Whether the strike was timed to disrupt the vote or coincided with it through operational scheduling is unknown. The effect on the legitimacy of the outcome is the same.
