For a long time, Ayatollah Khamenei has been ailing, prompting feverish speculation over a successor. The end of his long career has made his many failings and many challenges manifest.
Dead or alive, it looks now that Khamenei’s brutal balancing is over.
Imprisoned repeatedly by Iran’s feared security services, Khamenei was nonetheless able to take part in the vast protests of 1978 that eventually convinced the shah to flee.
Khamenei was always skeptical of the nuclear deal painstakingly negotiated by Iranian officials with the US and others, but he did not oppose its implementation in 2015.
Analysts argue over whether he has sought to restrain or encourage hardliners in the IRGC who have pushed for Iran to acquire a bomb.
Born the son of a minor cleric of modest means in the eastern Iranian shrine city of Mashhad, Khamenei took his first steps as a radical in the febrile atmosphere of the early 1960s. The then-shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, had launched a major reform project largely rejected by the country’s conservative clergy.
As a young religious student in Qom, a centre of theology, Khamenei had soaked in the traditions of Shia Islam and the radical new thinking of the emerging leader of the conservative opposition, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. By the late 1960s, Khamenei was running secret missions for Khomeini, who had been exiled, and organising networks of Islamist activism.
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Iran targeted US bases in Middle East countries Dubai, Doha, Riyadh come under attack
The United States and Israel on Saturday (Feb 28) carried out airstrikes across Iran, with Israel’s public broadcaster reporting that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was among the targets.
A strike on a school in southern Iran killed 63 people, a local official said
In retaliation, Tehran launched missiles at Israel and Gulf nations hosting U.S. military bases, raising concerns about a potential broader conflict in the Middle East.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told counterparts from Saudi, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain and Iraq that it will use all its defensive and military capabilities under legitimate right of self defense.
Araghchi said, “What we are doing is act of self defense, which is absolutely legal and legal and legitimate.”
According to Iran’s Red Crescent Society, over 20 of the country’s 31 provinces were impacted by the U.S. and Israeli strikes.
International diplomatic efforts are crucial to prevent further escalation and promote stability in the Middle East
There is no precedent for regime change happening just because of air strikes. Saddam Hussein of Iraq was overthrown in 2003 by a huge US-led invasion force. Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was overthrown in 2011 by rebel forces that were provided with an air force by Nato and some Arab states.
In both cases the result was the collapse of the state, civil war and thousands of killings. Libya is still a failed state. Iraq is still dealing with consequences of the invasion and the bloodletting that followed.
"Even if this becomes the first case of air power alone collapsing a regime, the Islamic regime will not be replaced by a liberal democracy that upholds human rights. There is no credible alternative government in exile waiting in the wings," Jeremy Bowen, BBC's international editor.
Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that there were many signs indicating Khamenei “is no longer with us”, without explicitly confirming his death.
Donald Trump also says Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead after US-Israeli strikes
The US president wrote on social media that it is "justice" for "the people of Iran", Americans, and "people from many countries throughout the world".
He says bombing will continue, that "this is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country", and that many Iranian forces "no longer want to fight".
BBC Verify has confirmed three videos showing celebrations in the cities of Karaj and Tehran tonight following unconfirmed reports of the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in strikes by Israel and the US.
One clip, filmed in a residential district near the city of Karaj, external, shows a group of residents dancing and cheering on the street, while cars sound their horns.
In another video, a man shouts "I'm dreaming, hello new world!" and the crowd is seen celebrating in the southern Fars province while taking down a sign of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
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