Iran names Mojtaba Khamenei as supreme leader; US deaths climb to 7

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will replace his father as Iran's next supreme leader, according to multiple media reports.

The decision, reported by Reuters and the New York Times on Sunday, comes as the U.S. military announced that another American service member died, bringing the number of U.S. troops killed in action so far in the war with Iran to seven.

The news also comes just after President Donald Trump attended on Saturday, March 7, the dignified transfer of the six Americans killed in the conflict. Four of the servicemembers were part of an Iowa-based reserve unit that the Pentagon says was stationed in Kuwait. They were killed in a March 1 drone attack.

As the United States-Israeli offense in Iran advanced into its second week, Trump said that he is not interested in negotiations. Instead, he raised the possibility that the war would continue until the Middle East country no longer has a military or leadership.

"At some point, I don't think there will be anybody left, maybe to say 'we surrender,'" Trump said aboard Air Force One en route to Florida.

As the war threatened to expand further, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said March 7 that a temporary leadership council had agreed to suspend attacks on nearby states unless strikes on Iran originated from their territory, Reuters reported. The United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq have all reported drone or missile attacks over the past week.

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Contributing: Reuters

Reports: Mojtaba Khamenei chosen as next Iran leader, state media says

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Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will replace his father as Iran's next supreme leader, according to multiple media reports on March 8.

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