DUBAI, March 7 - Two influential and hardline Iranian clerics have called for the swift selection of a new supreme leader to help guide the nation amid a new wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

The calls by the clerics suggest that at least some in the clerical establishment are uncomfortable with leaving a three-man council in charge, even temporarily under constitutional rules, after the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.