Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has chosen three senior clerics as potential candidates to be his successor in the case Israel should succeed in eliminating him, The New York Times reported on Saturday, citing three Iranian officials.

He also reportedly made the “unusual decision” of asking Iran’s Assembly of Experts, which is the body tasked with appointing a supreme leader, to choose his successor from the three names.

Israel has been eliminating the top military and IRGC commanders, in addition to top nuclear scientists in charge of Iran’s nuclear program, since it launched Operation Rising Lion on June 13.

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