{"id":3122,"date":"2026-03-01T03:12:50","date_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:42:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/?p=3122"},"modified":"2026-03-01T03:12:50","modified_gmt":"2026-02-28T21:42:50","slug":"israel-and-us-claims-ali-khamenei-eliminated-in-strikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/israel-and-us-claims-ali-khamenei-eliminated-in-strikes\/3122\/","title":{"rendered":"Israel and US claims, Ali Khamenei eliminated in strikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claims by the United States and Israel<\/a> that the Supreme Leader of Iran<\/a> has died have rapidly remodeled the Middle East strategic environment, fueling an already tense confrontation. The Israeli authorities claimed that Ali Khamenei<\/a> was killed in airstrikes on weekends, and two informants who<\/a> had knowledge of the case verified this claim. One of the informants said that the Israeli authorities had acquired photographic evidence of his body, and another one said that a formal announcement was being made.<\/p>\n

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> said that there were numerous indications that Khamenei<\/a> was not with us anymore but he did not give a formal pronouncement. An Israeli senior official also told Reuters<\/a> that the body of the Supreme Leader was found and this added weight to the argument that the operation was successful.<\/p>\n

The United States was seen to agree with the judgment of Israel<\/a>. In a story published by NBC News, President Donald Trump<\/a> declared, We believe that is<\/a> a right story, when he was interviewed about the reports of the death of Khamenei. He explained that the strikes were a decisive action that was aimed at getting rid of what he termed as a nuclear menace that had existed since the past. Trump<\/a> also encouraged Iranian security forces to drop their weapons and urged citizens to reevaluate their political leadership when the military activities were over.<\/p>\n

The alleged assassination was the result of one of the largest military operations against Iran<\/a> in decades reported by the Israeli authorities. Co-ordinated attacks were made on leadership compounds, on facilities associated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a>, and infrastructure that was said to be associated with Iranian nuclear program. According to Netanyahu, Khamenei compound was destroyed and several senior Revolutionary Guard commanders as well as high-ranking nuclear officials were also assassinated in the attack.<\/p>\n

Iran responded to this by firing missiles at Israel and several nations in the region including Gulf states with American military bases. Several Iranian cities have been reported to have exploded and this caused evacuation of civilians and massive disruption.<\/p>\n

Even though Washington<\/a> and Tel Aviv claimed it, Tehran denied the claims categorically. The Foreign Ministry spokesman of Iran has said that the president and the Supreme Leader were safe and well. Outlets affiliated with the state, such as Tasnim News Agency and Mehr News Agency, cited people close to the office of Khamenei stating that he was firm and unwavering in the command of the field. Nevertheless, his failure to appear in the street or on the television since the strikes has kept the speculation going.<\/p>\n

The tension began with internal pressures in Iran. Anti-government protests were suppressed with force weeks before, and opposition groups claimed that there were serious casualties. The national climate in the country had remained tense as protests had re-occurred in recent days in memory of those who<\/a> were killed in the crackdown.<\/p>\n

In case of its confirmation, the death of Khamenei would become a significant structural change in the Iranian political system. He had been the Supreme Leader since 1989 and had the final say in the armed forces, judiciary and strategic policymaking. His downfall may speed up a succession operation in the clerical system and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps<\/a>, which may alter the model of governance in Iran as well as the stance of the country in the region. At the moment, competing versions of the same situation in Washington<\/a>, Tel Aviv, and Tehran are still taking shape, and the wider geopolitical implications are still developing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claims by the United States and Israel that the Supreme Leader of Iran has died have rapidly remodeled the Middle\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":3123,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[1508],"class_list":["post-3122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","category-news","tag-khamenei"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3122"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3126,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3122\/revisions\/3126"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/trade-policy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}