Six Unanswered Questions for Post-Khamenei Iran
President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday evening that the “supreme leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was dead after an American and Israeli bombing campaign targeted Tehran this weekend.

President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday evening that the “supreme leader” of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was dead after an American and Israeli bombing campaign targeted Tehran this weekend.

President Donald Trump said Saturday night he knows “exactly who” could replace Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei following his elimination in a joint U.S.-Israeli strike, asserting the removal of Tehran’s longtime ruler has materially shifted the diplomatic landscape.

Several Democrats supported President Donald Trump after the United States and Israel carried out joint strikes on Iran overnight, highlighting the “need to stand together to bring an end to terrorism.”

President Donald Trump confirmed reports that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, “one of the most evil people in History,” had been killed during an Israeli strike on his compound in Tehran.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated during an Israeli air strike on his Tehran compound, Fox News reported.

Israel said on Saturday that it has taken part in a U.S.-led military operation in Iran, with Jerusalem reportedly targeting the top leadership of the Islamist regime in Tehran.

An Iranian opposition group took credit for a coordinated assault on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s Tehran headquarters this week, reporting “heavy clashes” with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that allegedly left more than 100 of its fighters killed, wounded, or arrested.

The United States deployed stealth F-22 fighter jets to Israel on Tuesday as part of what has been described as the largest American military buildup in the region in more than two decades, with high-stakes nuclear talks set for Thursday in Geneva and Iranian officials warning that any strike would inflict “heavy casualties.”

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Monday that the Iranian regime would face “a force they cannot even imagine” should it attack the Jewish state, as U.S. refueling and cargo aircraft landed at Ben Gurion Airport and an American carrier strike group advanced toward the eastern Mediterranean amid escalating regional tensions.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has activated wartime succession planning, empowering a hardline loyalist to oversee national security operations and ordering layered contingency measures to safeguard the regime amid fears of U.S. military strikes and assassination attempts.

U.S. military planning for potential strikes on Iran has entered what officials describe as an “advanced” phase, with options reportedly expanding beyond nuclear and missile infrastructure to include targeted decapitation strikes against senior regime figures — and with President Donald Trump said to be able to make a strike decision “at any moment.”

The United States has assembled the largest concentration of airpower in the Middle East since the 2003 Iraq invasion — deploying two aircraft carriers, advanced stealth fighters, refueling tankers, and layered missile defenses into theater — as multiple U.S. and Israeli reports warn President Donald Trump could authorize strikes on Iran “as soon as Saturday,” with talks described by American officials as “very far apart” and even a “near nothing-burger.”

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) general declared the United States is “finished” and claimed that even deploying America’s entire aircraft carrier fleet against Iran “won’t be able to do a damn thing” as U.S. and Iranian officials concluded a second round of nuclear talks in Geneva Tuesday under the shadow of an expanding American military buildup across the Middle East.

Iran fired live missiles into the Strait of Hormuz and temporarily disrupted traffic through the strategic oil chokepoint Tuesday as President Donald Trump’s envoys opened high-stakes nuclear talks in Geneva, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei simultaneously warning that American warships could be sent “to the bottom of the sea.”

As high-stakes nuclear negotiations resumed Tuesday in Geneva under mounting U.S. military pressure, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei taunted President Donald Trump and warned that American warships could be sent “to the bottom of the sea,” denouncing the United States as a “corrupt, oppressive empire” in decline.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States is negotiating with Iran’s leadership despite what he described as “radical Shiite clerics” who make political decisions based on “pure theology.”

President Donald Trump said after a nearly three-hour White House meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that “there was nothing definitive reached” beyond his insistence that negotiations with Iran continue — warning that if a deal cannot be “consummated,” “we will just have to see what the outcome will be,” as the Pentagon readies a second aircraft carrier for possible deployment to the Middle East.

Iran’s ruling clerics commemorated the 47th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution with nationwide rallies that included the burning of American flags, staged mock coffins bearing the names of U.S. military leaders, and the torching of an effigy decorated with a Star of David and an image of President Donald Trump, according to video shared by Iranian outlets and online accounts.

President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “should be very worried” as U.S.–Iran nuclear talks, earlier reported as collapsing, are now set to proceed Friday in Oman amid sharp disputes over the scope of negotiations and rising U.S. military pressure.

Nearly two hundred members of the Iranian American community in the Alamo City gathered over the weekend to show support for protesters in Iran seeking to topple the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei government. Rally-goers joined in chants calling for freedom for Iran, while passing motorists honked their horns in support of their cause.

Iran will “put an end to the United States’ mischief,” declared Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who threatened regional war and accused President Donald Trump of inciting violent protests during an online tirade marking the anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.

Iranian lawmakers chanted “Death to America! Death to Israel!” while dressed in the uniforms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during a Sunday parliamentary session, according to footage broadcast by state-linked media.

Iranian security forces have unleashed a sweeping mass-arrest campaign in recent days in a calculated bid to deter the revival of nationwide protests — a move unfolding as President Donald Trump escalates pressure on the theocratic regime.

Iran’s most legendary pop icon, Googoosh — known to millions as the “Voice of Iran,” silenced after the 1979 Islamic Revolution — urged President Donald Trump to “honor his words” and provide decisive support to the Iranian people as the clerical regime unleashed what she described as a nationwide slaughter aimed at crushing an uprising demanding the regime’s overthrow.

President Donald Trump warned Wednesday that “a massive armada” led by the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is moving toward Iran and that the regime’s “time is running out” to make a nuclear deal — or face a U.S. strike far worse than the one carried out last summer.

A U.S. aircraft carrier strike force is now in the Central Command region of the Middle East, the news coming as Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has tried to violently end nationwide protests against this repressive regime.

Following rising concerns over a possible U.S. military strike, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has relocated to a heavily fortified underground compound in Tehran, according to reports, which cited sources close to the regime who revealed his son now oversees day-to-day operations.

A two-day crackdown that new reporting says killed as many as 36,500 Iranians — a death toll placing it among the deadliest short-term mass killings documented in modern history — followed an order by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to mercilessly crush nationwide protests “by any means necessary,” including accounts of wounded civilians executed inside hospitals, living victims stuffed in body bags, and a surgeon who described the scenes as a “nightmare” unlike anything he had seen.

Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi warned that the Islamic Republic’s escalating violence against protesters has exposed a regime under strain — but not one on the verge of collapse — arguing that Tehran will not fall through foreign military intervention or external pressure alone, but only through an organized, nationwide resistance capable of dismantling its repressive core.

Iran’s judiciary declared it will “pursue” and “punish” President Donald Trump and leaders of the “Zionist regime” for “crimes” linked to fomenting protests, according to the Islamic Republic’s judiciary chief who accused Washington and Jerusalem of backing “terrorists.”

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian blamed the United States for Iran’s crises, accusing Washington of imposing “inhumane” sanctions while warning that any challenge to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei would amount to an “all-out war” against the Iranian nation.

“The Iranian nation defeated the U.S.,” declared Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisting the U.S. must “be held accountable.”

President Donald Trump, responding to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s attempt to blame him for recent protester deaths, slammed the Iranian Supreme Leader as a “sick man” and called for “new leadership,” declaring: “His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership.”

President Donald Trump is weighing imminent military action against Iran that could come “in the next 24 hours,” according to a Reuters report citing European officials, as the Pentagon begins pulling personnel from key U.S. bases across the Middle East and Tehran warns it would retaliate if Washington strikes.

Iran will teach “delusional” and “arrogant” President Donald Trump a “lesson that will never be forgotten,” warned Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who vowed U.S. forces would be “burned by the fire of Iran’s defenders” while insisting “we are your opponent.”

A senior Iranian regime official publicly called President Donald Trump an “impure, savage yellow dog” who “must pay the price” and be captured “like Maduro,” all while declaring that violent attacks inside the United States would be legally and religiously justified.

“Iran is looking at FREEDOM, perhaps like never before. The USA stands ready to help!!!” President Donald Trump wrote Saturday as he escalated his public backing of Iran’s protesters — and sharpened warnings to the regime in Tehran.

A forceful message from President Donald Trump, warning adversaries in Tehran not to “play games” and underscoring that he “is a man of action,” comes on the heels of recent U.S. action against socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro, sharpening pressure on Iran’s leadership as anti-regime protests spread.

President Donald Trump’s warning that the United States would intervene if Iran’s regime violently suppresses protesters drew swift backing from Republican senators, former U.S. officials, and security voices — with supporters invoking “actions and consequences,” praising Trump’s long-absent moral clarity, and drawing pointed contrasts with Barack Obama’s refusal to back Iranian protesters during the regime’s violent 2009 crackdown.

Iran’s government officials ordered a shutdown this week amid rioting and protests over the country’s dire economic and political situation.
