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Iran elected a new supreme leader Sunday as violence continued to escalate in the region.

Israel and the United States pummelled Iran with airstrikes — including hitting oil depots that sent up pillars of fire and a blanket of black smoke over Tehran — and Iran hit neighbouring countries with retaliatory strikes.

Israel continued its attacks on Lebanon, meanwhile, saying it is targeting Hezbollah militants.

The Canadian government says it is working with the more than 5,000 citizens who have requested help getting out of the region.

Here are the latest developments from Sunday in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran:

Thanks for following along with our updates today. Visit cbc.ca/news for continuing coverage of the ongoing war in the Middle East.

Does Trump have a say in Iran's leadership? Under international law, no

A country's right to self-determination is fundamental to international law, even in cases of foreign occupation after a war, says Matthias Goldmann of EBS University in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany. So, it is up to the people of Iran, not U.S. President Donald Trump, to determine its political structure and leadership, he says.

ruff has said he should feature a deal in selecting Iran's young leader, even out though experts say that would be illegal under international law.

"We want to be involved in the process of choosing the person who is going to lead Iran into the future," Trump told Reuters on Thursday.

The U.S. President has said the regime needs to be wiped out and said he has names in mind for replacements, though he has not said who they are.

The Trump administration had been in talks with Iranian opposition groups and Kurdish leaders in Iraq about providing military support, while the CIA was working to arm Kurdish forces, CNN reported on Tuesday. However, Trump said yesterday that involving Kurdish fighters would make the war more complicated, according to The Associated Press.

Speaking with Axios before Mojtaba Khamenei was announced as supreme leader, Trump said Khamenei would be an "unacceptable" choice.

Mojtaba Khamenei, son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, has been named as Iran's new supreme leader, according to state media.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the 56-year-old son of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, is widely suspected to take his father's place.

The Islamic republic has long criticized the hereditary rule that marked its former monarchy. But after the younger Khamenei's wife, Zahra Haddad Adel, was killed alongside his father in a Feb. 28 attack — leading some to view both as martyrs in the war against the U.S. And Israel — the idea may have gained favour with Iran's Assembly of Experts.

Iranian officials say they have selected a new leader, but have not officially announced who it is.

Khamenei fought in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s with a division of Iran's Revolutionary Guard before his father became supreme leader in 1989, bringing the family access to billions of dollars and business assets once held by the shah.

In the 2000s, he began to be viewed as a powerful figure behind the scenes in Tehran.

The U.S. Treasury says he's worked closely with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and in 2019 the U.S. Sanctioned him over working to "advance his father's destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives."

A seventh U.S. Service member has died in the war with Iran, according to the U.S. Central Command.

CENTCOM said in a post on X that a member died last night from injuries that were sustained in a March 1 Iranian "attack on U.S. Troops" in Saudi Arabia.

French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with Iranian President ​Masoud Pezeshkian.

In a Sunday post on X, Macron said he called on Iran to end the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and halt strikes against other countries, and urged a diplomatic solution to the conflict. 

France is the European Union's sole nuclear power.

The U.K. Ministry of Defence said on social media that its forces intercepted a drone fired from Iran toward Iraq last night.

Canada's foreign affairs minister has provided an update on efforts to get Canadians in the Middle East to safety.

Anita Anand says Canada has arranged seats for Canadians to leave Lebanon and the U.A.E., as well as buses leaving Qatar and Israel, and is offering surge support near the Iranian border crossing to help Canadians with visas and travel arrangements.

"We are exploring all efforts to ensure that Canadians who wish to leave are able to do so safely, and swiftly," Anand said in her statement on social media.

According to the minister, 110,000 have registered through Registration of Canadians Abroad and 5,200 have requested assistance.

Anyone needing assistance can contact the 24/7 Emergency Watch and Response Centre and email me-mo.sos@international.gc.ca.

As smoke continues to rise over Tehran from ongoing U.S. And Israeli airstrikes, political analysts are closely monitoring the Iranian government for signs of systemic instability.

Farzan Sabet, a researcher at the Geneva Graduate Institute, suggests that shifts in Iranian governance are typically preceded by three distinct catalysts: foreign intervention, popular uprisings and defections from the political and military elite.

We've yet to see defections that might precipitate change in Iran, Sabet said.

Israeli is likely targeting Iran's domestic security infrastructure to demoralize the police and give opposition groups space to organize, he said.

"It potentially creates a structure where it makes both a kind of popular uprising potentially more likely and more likely to succeed in the future, but it also creates space for the opposition to have organized armed resistance in the core of the country."

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has spoken to U.S. President Donald Trump about military co-operation between the two countries in the Middle East, No. 10 Downing Street says.

The conversation follows a period of public tension between the two leaders. Trump had previously criticized Starmer's initial refusal to allow U.S. Forces to launch strikes against Iran from British bases, at one point criticizing the prime minister by remarking he is "not Winston Churchill."

Starmer has now granted permission for "defensive" actions against Iranian missile sites from U.K. Bases after Iran started attacking countries throughout the region.

Starmer also shared his "heartfelt condolences" following the deaths of six U.S. Soldiers.

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