Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was slain on Saturday, state media reported, after the US and Israel launched the most extensive attack on Iranian sites in decades.
On Sunday morning, the Iranian state media confirmed Khamenei’s death.
A senior Israeli source previously informed Reuters that the Iranian leader’s body had been discovered during a hit, while US President Donald Trump stated that the US collaborated closely with Israel to kill the man who has led Iran since 1989.
Iran has called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases.
On Sunday, Iranian state media reported that Khamenei “was carrying out his assigned duties and was present at his workplace (his office).”
“This cowardly attack occurred in the early hours of Saturday morning,” it said, announcing 40 days of mourning and seven days of public holidays.
In a statement, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said, “We have lost a great leader, and we are mourning him, a leader who was unique in terms of purity of spirit, strength of faith, resourcefulness in affairs, courage in the face of the arrogant, and jihad in the path of God.”
The Guards also vowed “severe punishment” for the “murderers” and warned that the “most intensive” offensive on Israel and US bases would begin in moments.
“The hand of revenge of the Iranian nation for a severe, decisive, and regrettable punishment for the murderers of the Imam of the Ummah will not let go of them.”
Read Also: Pump prices expected to climb again, with fuel up 3.59% and diesel 1.52% in the March window
Trump’s gamble
Trump, making the biggest foreign policy gamble of his presidency after campaigning for reelection as a “peace president,” said the strikes were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon.
Intelligence and tracking systems monitored Khamenei’s whereabouts, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that “there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do”.
Trump reiterated calls for Iranians to topple the government but warned, “The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Khamenei’s compound had been demolished.
According to three sources acquainted with the situation, the assaults killed Iranian Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh and Revolutionary Guards commander Mohammed Pakpour.
Earlier, Israel’s military confirmed the death of five other senior military leaders, including Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader. Iranian media reported that Khamenei’s daughter, grandson, son-in-law, and daughter-in-law were also killed.
Israel’s military operations over the past two years have killed senior Iranian military officers and damaged Tehran’s proxy groups throughout the Middle East.
After Israel and the United States pummeled Iran in a 12-day air war in June, the two countries threatened that if Iran continued with its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, they would attack again.
Negotiations between US and Iranian officials were held as recently as Thursday. Still, senior US officials said on Saturday that Iran was unwilling to give up its ability to enrich uranium, which the Iranians claimed was necessary for nuclear energy but which US officials said would allow the country to build a nuclear bomb.
During a United Nations Security Council meeting on Saturday, Russian and Chinese envoys criticized the US and Israel for launching the strikes while Tehran was negotiating with Washington. Russia’s UN representative, Vasily Nebenzya, said Iran had been “stabbed in the back” and rejected the US assertion that preventing Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon justified the attacks.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged an immediate suspension of hostilities.
Trump also received criticism at home from opposition Democrats and a few of his Republican colleagues, who claimed that a sustained campaign against Iran would be unconstitutional without congressional consent and that Congress should decide within days.
Source: Dawn
Leave a comment