(Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/AP photo)
Israel’s N12 News is reporting that the Israeli government believes that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is dead.
A translated version of an N12 update from Saturday morning citing a senior Israeli official suggests that the Israelis have assessed that Khamenei is “no longer with us” after the United States and Israel launched a joint operation against the Iranian regime overnight.
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, meanwhile, told NBC News in a Saturday morning interview that he believes both Khamenei and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are still alive.
“As far as I know, yes, they are alive,” Araghchi said after being asked directly about their status.
“Almost all officials are safe, and sound, and alive. We may have lost one or two commanders, but that is not a big problem,” insisted Araghchi.
Meanwhile, Reuters has reported that both Iran’s defense minister and the commander of its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been eliminated.
And Axios’s Barak Ravid quoted an IDF official who told him that “Three sites where gatherings of the Iranian regime were taking place were struck simultaneously, and several senior figures essential to the management of the campaign and the regime’s governance were eliminated.”
President Donald Trump announced that the United States had begun “major combat operations in Iran” in a video statement released on Saturday morning.
“Our objective is to defend the the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime, a vicious group of very hard, terrible people,” said Trump before calling on the Iranian people to “take over” their government once the United States concludes its operations.
“America is backing you with overwhelming strength and devastating force,” he promised.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meanwhile, said that “Our joint operation will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their fate into their own hands. The time has come for all parts of the Iranian people—the Persians, Kurds, Azeris, Baloch, and Ahwazis—to cast off the yoke of tyranny and bring freedom and peace-loving values to Iran.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.
