Iran's Assembly of Experts announced that Mojtaba Khamenei, son of the late Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has been selected as his successor by the Assembly of Experts. They are hoping to unify the country and leadership around him, and President Donald Trump's reaction to the election was to decline to comment, saying only that "we'll see what happens".
The White House has been saying that this war with Iran would last 3-4 weeks, but now Trump said on Sunday that the decision on when to end the war with Iran will be a "joint" decision that will be made with Netanyahu. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Sunday night that "This war will determine our future and security for many more years" and regarding the duration of the war, that "This will take a very long time, you need to be prepared for that, and however long it takes, it takes." But the Iranians continue to say that they will not surrender; they will become even more aggressive against all Israeli and American assets anywhere in the world; that these assets are now considered active targets; and that they are prepared for a war that takes months or even years to achieve their goals against the U.S. and Israel. Fars News Agency reported Iranian officials as saying, "Following attacks by the U.S. and Zionist regime on parts of Iran's infrastructure, Iran will no longer limit its response to military targets and facilities. Iran's target bank has been functionally updated to include key assets and vital interests of the U.S. and the Zionist regime throughout the region."
But the war against Iran seems to be expanding with new "semi-allies" with America that Iran is creating for itself through its attacks on other Arab nations.
Saudi Arabia claimed that two were killed and 12 were injured by Iran's Sunday attack on a residential neighborhood. Bahrain announced that the military has intercepted and destroyed 95 missiles and 164 drones since the start of Iranian attacks, including 32 people injured early Thursday morning by Iran. Qatari Prime Minister al-Thani said that he felt a "deep sense of betrayal" following the many Iranian strikes toward his country. And Turkey's Ministry of Defense announced early Monday morning that it "has deployed six F-16 fighter jets and air defense systems to northern Cyprus to "protect the Turkish community on the island."
While most Americans think of all nations in the region, outside of Israel, as the same Arab Muslim nations, this is inaccurate. Most of the Arab world does not even consider Iran to be "Arab" at all, and the Iranians themselves do not consider themselves to be "Arab," despite decades of alliances. In terms of Islam, Iran is inhabited by over 90% Shia Muslims, whereas Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Iraq, and others are composed mostly of Sunni Muslims.
Almost all of Iran's attacks on nations other than Israel have been against the Arab countries that are Sunni Muslim nations.
Those Arab countries are expressing their ever-increasing disdain for Iran as they have more talks and discussions with Trump and Israel, all while taking attacks from Iran on residential and business areas of their countries. It may ultimately be that nations come together in the Abraham Accords as a direct result of Iran's repeated attacks on these other Arab nations.
May we see the entire world united against the evil that is the Iranian regime and ultimately come together in peace with each other, with the U.S., with Israel, and with Western Civilization.
Chazak u'Baruch
Rabbi Michael Barclay
March 9, 2026
20th of Adar, 5786
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