Iran's Supreme Leader killed in US-Israeli strikes

0:00This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK. BBC.com and the BBC app visit BBC.com slash docs to learn more. You're listening to the global news podcast from the BBC World Service. Hello, I'm Oliver Conway. This edition is published in the early hours of Sunday, the first of March. Iran has confirmed the death of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Kamenei.

1:00The 86 year old cleric was killed during a barrage of US Israeli strikes. President Trump called him one of the most evil people in history, as some people celebrated in Iran. But who is in charge now? Also in the podcast, we hear about Iranian retaliation, hitting targets across the Middle East and threatening to close a key oil transit route, and we get an update from the UN Security Council. For nearly four decades, Ayatollah Ali Kamenei has wielded absolute power in Iran, but no longer. As dawn broke in Tehran, Iranian state media confirmed he was dead, killed at his office in the early hours of Saturday. It followed a day of heavy airstrikes across Iran by the US and Israel, codenamed Epic Fury. President Trump earlier broke the news of the death of the 86 year old cleric,

2:03calling him one of the most evil people in history, but Iran denied it. Nevertheless, as rumors spread of his demise, there were celebrations in a number of Iranian cities. Young people, including women without headscarves, danced and waved flags in a residential area near the city of Karaj. In the west of the capital Tehran, people were filmed cheering and whistling from their windows and balconies as celebrations echoed between tall apartment blocks. Well, Iran has now announced 40 days of mourning, while the Revolutionary Guard Corps promised severe decisive punishment for the murderers of Ayatollah Kamenei as it put it. But what does his death mean for the people of Iran? His Qash-e-Yah, John A.D. of the BBC Passion Service. For 36 years, his will was what was implemented, no matter elections, parliamentary elections, a president,

3:07all of them were second to him. So he was the most important person in the country, and he had a, according to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, he had a high religious, as well as high political standing, and nobody was above him. He was above the law. And many people were not happy with the way the country moved forward during his reign. And the result of that dismay and that resentment was the uprisings, was the protests in January, which were heavily crushed. So Kamenei's last chapter of his reign will be remembered as a bloody chapter in which thousands of people were killed on the streets of Tehran and other cities across the country, people who were not happy with their economic situation. And now the chance you were hearing now, these are the people, which will remember Kamenei, not by what happened during these 36 years,

4:08but by the crackdown on the protesters. Who is in charge of the country at the moment? We still don't know. Look, considering the standards of the Islamic Republic, the announcement of Kamenei's death was faster than usual. 36 years ago, when his predecessor, Ayatullah Khomeini died, they waited till seven in the morning to announce his death. Kamenei's death has been announced five in the morning. That shows that they have some confidence about the succession structure. The designation has probably been made, but in secret. Let's keep in mind, the question is not only who is going to succeed Kamenei. It is how fast the military, the IRGC, will be able to announce its new command structure. We know that during these attacks in the past less than 24 hours, many senior commanders of the IRGC and the military forces of Iran have been killed and they need to be replaced in order for a smooth transition.

5:10We have to see, by the way, managed to sustain their attacks on Israel and US bases across the Persian Gulf region. And maybe they are reluctant to announce that early because they remember the experience from Hassan Nasrullah's death in an Israeli bombing. So when the Lebanese Hezbollah announced Nasrullah's replacement, he was also killed in a successive Israeli strike. So they have to be very careful. They know that, but at the same time, let's not forget the regime is on shaky grounds. It's been like weakened by US and Israeli attacks. But more importantly, it has been weakened by the mass protests across the country in January. And again, last week, all major university campuses in Iran witnessed mass protests against the regime. I remember seeing pictures of students hanging effigies of Kamenei in the university campuses,

6:12which was never heard of. So the regime is on shaky ground and the people have the chance of probably taking over if the conditions are right for them. Kashyyah, John A.D. of the BBC Parshant Service. Well, the Ayatollah was only Iran's second leader since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Caroline Hawley looks back at his life. Ayatollah Ali Hamani had the final say on all important matters of state in Iran. He served as president of the Islamic Republic under Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Theocratic State. When he died in 1989, Ali Hamanii took over a supreme leader. Boyat Khun Gerishtar, John A.D. He suggested when his name was first proposed for the role that he wasn't worthy of it. He'd grown up in the Holy City of Mashad and became a cleric at a young age, though not one of huge consequence. And his story in Ali Ansari says that at first, he wasn't a hard liner. When he was president,

7:12he was probably on the more progressive side of politics in Iran. The interesting thing about him is how, in a sense, his position radicalized him. His position corrupted him. People telling him that he's God's gift to the world in this sort of thing. I mean, eventually it gets to you as you start to believe it. As supreme leader, he'd had to build his power base by aligning himself with Iran's hardline military force, the IRGC, the revolutionary guards. The regime's repression alienated more and more Iranians, elected presidents who'd promised political reform were repeatedly thwarted by the supreme leader and protest against the regime when they broke out, were brutally crushed. In 2009 came the first major challenge to his rule. There were mass demonstrations in response to a presidential election that many Iranians felt was stolen by the system in favor of a conservative candidate. The regime responded with deadly force. Then, in 2022, came an uprising led by women,

8:17chanting, woman, life, freedom. In the game after the death and custody of a young woman, Masa Aminu, he'd been arrested and accused of not wearing her hijab properly. But protesters of all ages were demanding change, challenging as never before, the very legitimacy of clerical rule. They chanted death to the dictator, a reference to Ali Khomeini, as they did again during an uprising in January that was put down with unprecedented force, only engendering more hatred of him. He was committed to the end to preserving the central tenets of the Islamic Republic. He blamed the unrest as he always did on outsiders, Iran's enemies, Israel and the US. He, in Barnu Miri Zero Karete, Bandebe Sarahat Migam, he, Barnu Miri Zero... Within the Middle East, he tried to project power and influence by sponsoring a network of proxy groups, including his bullet in Lebanon, who were meant to help deter Israel from attacking.

9:19But the so-called axis of resistance crumbled under Israeli attack in the wake of the Hamas assault of October the 7th, 2023. But it was Iran's nuclear program that provoked the biggest crisis of his rule. He'd warned America not to attack, saying Iran was not a nation that would surrender. Professor Ali Ansari says Ayatollah Khomeini was a true believer to the end in the Islamic revolution. You know, he was echoing the sort of idea the Shah had about the great civilization, but his great civilization was this sort of great Islamic civilization that very few people bought into, apart from the strict hardliners, and actually was doing an enormous amount of damage to the fabric of society. You know, the material damage can be sorted, but it's the moral damage that's the most important, really. He was the longest-serving ruler in the Middle East, hard-line defender of the Islamic Republic, at a huge cost to his people who increasingly wanted a different kind of rule. Caroline Hawley, a chief international correspondent,

10:19Lee's Duset, has recently returned from Iran. I asked her, how prepared is the country for the death of the Supreme Leader? It was reported last year, even before the 12-day war, that Ayatollah Khamenei had already instructed the body known as the Assembly of Experts to prepare for any eventuality, including his assassination. And at the time, the New York Times reported that a short list of at least three possible candidates had been drawn up so that when the moment came, they would be able to move swiftly to ensure there was no vacuum. And of course, these preparations took on added urgency when Iran saw, even in the first wave of attacks last year, that Israel was able to assassinate, on the first night alone, nine nuclear scientists, top security chiefs, and now there is a new war, and the Assembly of Experts will be poised to move into action to choose a new Supreme Leader.

11:21And there has been speculation for many years over who could possibly replace Ayatollah Khamenei, the second Supreme Leader, since the Iranian Revolution of 1979. And among the possible successors has been the name of his son, Mushedabad. But there are many who say, no, that simply cannot be possible because in Shia Islam tradition, you don't have that kind of anointing Europe with some member of your own family. Now, there have been many protests in recent years and decades against the authorities. Could the death of the Ayatollah Khamenei could that lead to regime change, or perhaps trigger a crackdown? I think it would be a big leap to think that the change of one individual would mean the end of the regime. It would be change in the regime, but once it's been announced that there is a new person in charge, whatever the orientation of this cleric, and he's certain to be a conservative cleric, his overriding objective will be absolutely the same. And that is the survival of the Islamic Republic,

12:23the survival of clerical rule, and the continuing power of the security forces who keep this system in place. That is the absolutely red line for this regime. And we've seen that, whether there have, for example, been presidents who are regarded more as more reformists or hard line no matter who they are, they all fall in line when it comes to the survival of this clerical regime. Will these attacks concentrate their minds about a possible shift in direction, of course, after what happened in Venezuela, where you had the removal of a president, and a new president stepping into place and working with the United States of America? Could that happen in Iran? It will be much more difficult, but these are really extraordinary times. Now, as well as firing missiles at what it calls hostile forces in the region, Iran says it's closed the straits of Hormuz, that vital artery for oil and gas. What impact could that have? What else might the Iranians do?

13:26Iran's ambition, of course, as it reacts in what it calls self-defense, is to use every weapon in its arsenal as it faces up against the most powerful military in the world as well as the military might of Israel. And in that armory, it has the ability to close this, one of the world's most strategic waterways. And if the strait of Hormuz, this choke point, is shut off for any length of time, this will have wide-ranging repercussions for the world over, because so much maritime traffic, including oil tankers, go through these waters. Iran knows that, but, of course, Iran also benefits from that waterway, so it won't want to pinch it too much too long, but that certainly is one of the weapons that it has always made clear that it's willing to use to inflict as much pain as possible in order to end this aggression, as it sees it, as soon as possible. Please do set. And as we record this podcast,

14:26it's being reported that a council of three people, the Iranian president, the head of the judiciary, and a cleric on the powerful Guardian Council, will temporarily assume leadership duties in Iran until a successor can be chosen. Still to come on the podcast, what is the strategy now for the Iranian government? I think it is beleaguered, it is annexed, it is divided and dithering, but what they will be thinking is, we can last longer than Trump. We air from a defense expert. I'm Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's Russia editor. In our man in Moscow, I'll show you what it's like, being a news correspondent in Russia, as the Russian authorities wage war on Ukraine and try to silence dissent. The sound of war has reverberated around Ukraine for three years. Dramatic geopolitical upheaval, alongside threats of intimidation and imprisonment.

15:28Our man in Moscow, watch with the subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app. Visit BBC.com slash docs to learn more. Iran during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council in New York on Saturday, saying they acted to stop an existential threat. But the Iranian ambassador, Amir Said Iravani, accused the two nations of deliberately attacking populated areas. As a result of this brutal armed attack, hundreds of civilians have been killed and injured. In addition to the new mere civilian residential building, the aggressors have also targeted a school in the city of Minab killing more than 100 children. The number of innocent civilians continues to rise. This is not only an act of aggression, it is a war crime and a crime against humanity.

16:32Our correspondent at UN headquarters, Nedotavik, told us more about the meeting. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres didn't use the word illegal, but he talked about countries' obligations under the UN Charter. And in that respect, he condemned the US-Israeli air strikes on Iran. And he also condemned Iran's retaliatory attacks on countries in the region. And essentially, even though the United States, Ambassador Mike Walts, and Israel's ambassador, Danny Denon, strongly defended striking Iran. We heard from the US ambassador saying it was a moment in history that required moral clarity and President Trump had met the moment. They were going to ensure peace through strength. And we heard the Israeli ambassador saying that this was not in any way a decision that was made impulsively. So despite that defense, even from their Western allies on the council, France and the UK,

17:32everyone called for this to end, saying that the region really can't deal with any more destabilization. Yeah, I mean, will there be any concrete action as a result of this security council meeting? Look, I mean, the security council has long been paralyzed over Iran, but certainly you have Russia, a permanent member, which invaded Ukraine. You have the United States. It has been deeply involved in the war in Gaza. And so these divides run very deep. So there's unlikely to be any action but, so ever, given those divides on the council. And we saw that play out again today with Russia and China saying that Iran had been stabbed in the back because during those mediated talks that Oman was indirectly helping with, the strikes on Iran happened in the midst of that. So those divides are there, but the point of these emergency meetings is showing that they understand the danger of this moment

18:34and the seriousness of it, even if they can't act. Yeah, what about America's allies? They're deeply opposed to Iran's actions in the region and yet at the same time, they probably don't want this kind of war. Yeah, that's right. I mean, let's also talk about, for example, the Gulf countries that spoke today because France suggested that they would help those countries in any way they can with defense because Bahrain spoke and said they were trying to help mediate talks. They were pushing for a peaceful resolution. And so they reject Iran's suggestion that it can target them defensively and for the UK and France, both of them saying there needs to be resumption on talks on Tehran's nuclear program, but they understand that this can only be solved in a diplomatic way because the stakes are just too high in the Middle East for miscalculation right now and for, as I said, the spreading further to other regional partners.

19:35Yeah, Talfi, got the United Nations in New York. In the early hours of Sunday, Iran said it was launching its most intense operation yet against Israel and US bases in the Middle East. Earlier strikes were reported in the UAE with two dead, as well as in Qatar, Bahrain, Qwait, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. There were also reports of fires at multiple sites in Dubai and four people were injured in a strike on Dubai Airport. Israel has also been targeted. Our correspondent, Yuka Bachega, is in Jerusalem. Here in Israel, it's been a day of constant air raid alerts and also interceptions by the country's air defense systems. And in fact, in Tel Aviv, emergency services are now carrying out rescue operations in a neighborhood that was hit. And according to the emergency services there, at least 21 people were injured. At least one of them is in a critical condition. And one residential building there was partially destroyed

20:38as a result of this impact. So the first significant impact. Today, the Israeli authority said around, or at least, 100 missiles and drones were fired by Iran. But it is believed that the vast majority of them were either intercepted by the country's military or fell in open areas in the country. But again, the briefing reporters saying that they believe that this operation is likely to continue for several more days. Now, there is a state of emergency in place in Israel, which means that schools are closed. Workplaces have also been closed. The airspace has been shut down. And obviously, all public gatherings have been banned. And the population here has been warned to stay alert, to follow the instructions, and to stay close to shelters because they believe that this threat coming from these missiles fired from Iran in response to these attacks by the Americans and the Israelis is going to continue. You go Bachega in Jerusalem.

21:39Well, the defense editor of the economist, Shashank Joshi, has been assessing Iran's response. Joe Pike asked how it compared to the retaliation after the 12-day war with Israel and the US last year. Completely different. It's much quicker. It took about 18 hours for the Iranians to respond to the first Israeli strike last year, I think. This was within hours very fast, or be it on quite a small scale. But more importantly, it was much, much broader. That's both geographically and in terms of targets they've hit pretty much all the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council, apart from Omar, which is to be expected. And so, Omar was doing the mediation with America. And they struck not just US military bases, like the fifth fleet in Bahrain, but actually, interestingly, also hitting economic targets at the team's oil industry in the eastern province in South Arabia, or at least, I don't know what else they'd be hitting that part of the world. And, of course, striking to buy, you know, you may have seen these videos. I've just seen one of areas around the Burjale Arab being struck.

22:39Those are really efforts to go after these densely populated, vitally important economic areas for the United Arab Emirates to say we can disrupt your economic model unless you lean on the United States to stop this conflict. And I expect to see a little bit more of that in the days ahead. And, Josh, what is your assessment of the mentality of the Iranian government and the military at this point? And I suppose also how long they're able to sustain this? I think it is beleaguered. It is panicked. It is divided and dithering. It's supremely distruggled to make a decisive decisions over the last two years and moments of crisis. And when you're going underground and you're worried that the Israelis are tracking your electronic communications, then it becomes all the harder to communicate and get your messages out. So part of the effort here by the Israelis is to disrupt Iranian command and control by decapitating the leadership. And I think that that will have a huge impact on Iran's ability to coordinate. But what they will be thinking is,

23:40we can last longer than Trump. Trump doesn't want a four-week month-long campaign. That's absolutely not what he'd like. We can survive that long and ride this out. Then we can confound this effort at regime change. And I think that will be their strategy now. Shashan and Joshi of the Economist. In the US, there's been a mixed reception to the attacks, Democrats expressed frustration that the president ordered the strikes without seeking congressional approval. Many Republicans backed it, but some of the MAGA faithful, including Tucker Carlson and Marjorie Taylor Greene, were opposed with a latter calling it a betrayal. More details from our correspondent, Simee Jolla Olshok, in Washington. There's been a mixed reaction from Republicans to Donald Trump's strikes in Iran. We've heard from Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who says that Iran's nuclear ambitions pose a clear and unacceptable threat to the US. And that Iran has refused diplomatic roots.

24:41And he's a commended President Trump for taking action. That's reflected by Attorney General Pam Bondi, who described President Trump as courageous and decisive. And then House Speaker Mike Johnson has also said that Iran is now facing severe consequences for its lack of agreeing to a deal with the US. And that President Trump and the administration have made every effort for a peaceful way forward and for a diplomatic solution. But not all Republicans are supporting President Trump's actions. Representative Thomas Massey has said that he opposes the war. And he will be siding with Democrats who have decided to vote on a war power's resolution. Immediately, the war power's resolution is a law that checks the president's power to deploy troops. It gives him 48 hours to notify and explain his decision to Congress and will allow 60 days of engagement

25:44unless Congress approves further deployments by troops. Jimmy Jalashou in Washington. So what does the next few days and weeks look like for the Iranian people? Let's hear again from our chief international correspondent, please do set. Well, to use his expression, this is really uncharted territory. No matter how much the Iranian leaders have thought about this moment, prepared for this moment, a war has been unleashed. And even at its very start in one day of strikes, so much already is changing with the death of the supreme leader and many other senior political and security officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran. And of course, it comes at a moment where Iran has been facing not just an unprecedented external threat, but internal upheaval. When we were in Iran earlier this month, I have to say that it felt like a different country and the anger in the pain over the use of lethal force

26:46which caused the greatest loss of life in the thousands in Iran's history. It was still raw. There are those across Iran who are hoping that this will be the beginning of the change, the systemic change that they want. And at the same time, the supporters of the Islamic Republic and its revolution will be calculating how best they can hold on to power. This is a defining moment in the Islamic Republic of Iran as it faces off against problems at home and this very unpredictable war that is now confronting it. Our Chief International Correspondent, at least you said. And that is all from us for now. We'll be back very soon, but you can email us at globalpodcast.bbc.co.uk. This edition was mixed by James Piper and produced by Stephanie Zacherson and Shivon Lehi. Our editors, Karen Martin, I'm Oliver Conway. Until next time, goodbye.

27:51I'm Steve Rosenberg, the BBC's Russia Editor. In our man in Moscow, I'll show you what it's like being a news correspondent in Russia as the Russian authorities wage war on Ukraine and try to silence dissent. The sound of war has reverberated around Ukraine for three years. Dramatic geopolitical upheaval alongside threats of intimidation and imprisonment. Our man in Moscow, watch with the subscription to BBC.com and the BBC app. Visit BBC.com slash docs to learn more.