Did the US, Israel bomb Assembly of Experts building, where Iran's new Supreme Leader is selected? Reports claim…

Media reports from Iran and Israel appeared to suggest that the US and Israel bombed a building which houses the Assembly of Experts, the body tasked with electing the nation's Supreme Leader. The reports claimed that the bombing of the building in Qom occurred on Tuesday (Mar 2), two days after Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an air strike in a joint US-Israel operation. That strike had killed dozens of other leaders in the clerical and military echelons of Iran.

Assembly of Experts building attacked

The semi-official Tasnim news agency of Iran said in a report: “The American-Zionist criminals attacked the Assembly of Experts building in Qom.” Tasnim news agency is affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Footage circulated on Iranian state channels and social platforms showed the building, which houses the Assembly of Experts secretariat, severely damaged.

If the Assembly of Experts building was destroyed, what does that mean?

If the US and Israel indeed bombed and destroyed the Qom building, the message is clear: they would not allow the selection of another Supreme Leader of Iran after Ali Khamenei.

Sources cited in Israeli media claimed that the strike targeted the building while members were meeting to discuss or begin the successor selection process, aiming to disrupt it.

At the time of writing, there is no Iranian confirmation as to whether clerics of the Assembly of Experts were actually present or gathering for a session when the attack happened.

Some Israeli officials speaking to outlets such as Axios, and some Telegram channels like Zed TV, claimed this to be the case, with potential casualties among members.

Iran's Mehr News Agency and Fars News downplayed the reports, saying the Qom site is an "old, secondary structure" no longer used for meetings.

Casualties could not be immediately confirmed, with no verified reports of mass deaths among Assembly members.

Why the Assembly of Experts is important

The Assembly of Experts, or the Majles-e Khobregan-e Rahbari, is a deliberative body of the Islamic Republic consisting of 88 senior mujtahids, or Shia Islamic jurists. They are all approved by the Guardian Council before being elected by direct public vote for eight-year terms.

Filled mainly with principlists and conservative figures loyal to the regime, the clerics are experts in Islamic jurisprudence, or fiqh.

The most recent election to the Assembly of Experts was in 2024 for its sixth term, set to end in 2032.

The body has convened to elect Iran's Supreme Leader only once in its history, in 1989, when it selected Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini after Khomeini's death.

For the rest of the time, it has functioned in a supervisory role, theoretically having the power to dismiss or replace the Leader.

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