France, March 9 -- Nine days after US-Israeli strikes killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and pushed the Middle East into a widening war, Iranian clerics selected only the third supreme leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Iranian state television announced Mojtaba Khamenei's appointment on Monday with a statement from the 88-member Assembly of Experts beside a portrait of the new 56-year-old leader.

Khamenei "is appointed and introduced as the third leader of the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran, based on the decisive vote of the respected representatives of the Assembly of Experts", the statement said.

The clerical body said it "did not hesitate for a minute" in choosing a successor despite what it described as "the ...