Mojtaba Khamenei, the powerful son of Iran's slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, is alive and favoured to emerge as his father's successor, two Iranian sources told Reuters on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
As new explosions rang out in Tehran, plans were in doubt for a funeral for the elder Khamenei, 86, killed by Israeli forces on Saturday in the first assassination of a nation's top ruler by airstrike. His body had been scheduled to lie in state in a vast Tehran mosque from Wednesday evening but state media reported the farewell ceremony was postponed.
The United States and Israel pressed on with their round-the-clock assaults on Iran on Wednesday in a campaign that the top U.S. commander said was "ahead of the game plan".
A fall in global markets turned into a rout in Asia, including a record-breaking crash in Seoul, as some investors were unconvinced by U.S. President Donald Trump's assurances he would quickly reopen the world's most important shipping corridor and release blockaded Middle East oil and gas.
European markets later stabilised and turned higher after two days of sharp losses, on hopes that the war might end soon. Some traders said the improved sentiment followed a New York Times report that Iranian intelligence had reached out to the CIA early in the war about a path towards ending it.
The report said officials in Washington were sceptical of an "off-ramp" for now, while Trump said on Tuesday that Iranians wanted talks but it was "too late".
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