France, March 9 -- Iran's Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for appointing the country's supreme leader, elected Mojtaba Khamenei on Sunday during a secret meeting in the holy city of Qom, local media reported.

His name had recently been raised by US President Donald Trump in an interview with the American news site Axios. Trump warned that if Mojtaba Khamenei became supreme leader, "he would be killed like his father".

Mojtaba Khamenei's wife - the daughter of hardline politician and former parliament speaker Gholamali Haddadadel - was among those killed on 28 February, the first day of the US-Israeli offensive.

For years he had been seen as a possible successor to his father, Ali Khamenei. His prospects app...