DUBAI: Israel's intelligence assessment is that Iran's new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was lightly wounded in the Israeli-U.S. joint air war against Iran and that is why he has not been seen in public, a senior Israeli official told Reuters.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards forced through the choice of Mojtaba Khamenei as the new supreme leader, seeing him as a more pliant version of his father who would back their hardline policies.

Khamenei's selection may add up to a more aggressive stance abroad and sterner internal repression, said three senior Iranian sources, a reformist former official and another insider.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said last week that any leader appointed by the current Iranian leadership would "be an unequivocal target for elimination."