Iran’s leader, Ali Khamenei, is dead as a result of U.S.-Israeli strikes aimed at toppling the Islamic republic’s hardline regime, President Trump said Saturday.
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social. “This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS.”
Previously, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that there are “many signs that this dictator is gone” after his compound in Tehran was destroyed.
However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said the leader is “safe and sound,” having been moved to a secure location.
Not long after the bombing, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Mr. Khamenei was still alive, “as far as I know.”
But Mr. Khamenei’s body had been found, Reuters reported, citing a senior Israeli official.
Before he confirmed the Iranian leader’s death, Mr. Trump told NBC News that Iran’s supreme leader was killed in the bombing: “We feel that that is a correct story.”
He added that “a large amount of leadership” had been killed, saying, “The people that make all the decisions, most of them are gone.”
Mr. Netanyahu called on the Iranian people to seize the “once-in-a-generation opportunity” to “take to the streets en masse, to complete the task of overthrowing the regime that is making your lives miserable.”
He added, “This is your time to join forces to overthrow the regime, to secure your future.”
Iran’s exiled former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, a leading opposition leader who organized mass protests against the regime, echoed the same sentiment, urging Iranian security forces to help ensure a stable and secure transition.
“Otherwise, you will sink with Khamenei’s ship and his crumbling regime,” he said.
Mr. Trump said that Mr. Khamenei’s death is “the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country.”
Mr. Khamenei led Iran for over three decades following the 1989 death of revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, becoming one of the world’s longest-serving authoritarian rulers.
Mr. Khamenei held vast authority over the judiciary, state media and all security forces, wielding his power to crush repeated domestic unrest, including killing thousands of protesters during the most recent nationwide uprising.
If Mr. Khamenei is dead, it marks a major achievement for Mr. Trump and Mr. Netanyahu, and a blow to the regime — one of the goals of the attack.
The death would throw immediate succession into question.
“I can assure you the system is working because it is very sophisticated and based on a popular revolution,” Mr. Baghaei said. “So, it is not a one-man ruler. Everything is being done in accordance with our plans. Our armed forces are conducting their defensive action against this act of aggression.”
Mr. Trump said he hopes that Iranian police and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of Iran’s Armed Forces, will “peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots, and work together as a unit to bring back the Country to the Greatness it deserves.”
“That process should soon be starting in that, not only the death of Khamenei but the Country has been, in only one day, very much destroyed and, even, obliterated,” he added.
When asked by NBC News about who will replace the ayatollah, he sarcastically said, “I don’t know, but at some point they’ll be calling me to ask who I’d like.”
Mr. Trump said that the military strikes are “already a success.”
“We’ve inflicted tremendous damage. It would take them years to rebuild,” he said.
On social media, he said that 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!”
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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