"Hamenei is dead!": In Tehran, people celebrate the death of the supreme leader from their balconies

BeirutAlthough no official source from the ayatollahs' regime had confirmed the death of the supreme leader by late Saturday, which Israel and Donald Trump himself were reporting as fact, many Tehran residents loudly celebrated the alleged assassination of Ali Khamenei. "Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead," Trump said on social media.

"Khamenei is dead," "Khamenei is dead," shouted numerous people from the windows of his house north of the Iranian capital, cries that, according to the EFE news agency, were mixed with whistles, applause, and the sounds of car horns and trumpets. Shouts of "Yavid shah" (Long live the Shah) were also heard, a reference to the monarchy overthrown in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In the early hours of Saturday, following the joint US-Israeli coup, the regime claimed that Khamenei had been taken to a safe location and was unharmed. However, the fact that he was not seen in public all day, nor were any images of him released, and that later the Israeli prime minister stated in a televised address that there were "strong indications" that he had died as a result of the attack, caused the news to spread like wildfire through the streets of Tehran. The shouts of jubilation, which echoed for about 20 minutes, demonstrated the discontent of a segment of the population with the political system established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979.

Meanwhile, the Israel Defense Forces released a list of high-ranking regime officials who were also killed in the early hours of the attacks, while the supreme leader was also reportedly killed.

Among the victims are Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Iranian Security Council; Mohamed Pakpour, commander of the IRGC; Mohamed Shirazi, head of the Military Bureau; Aziz Nasirzadeh, Minister of Defense; Hossein Jabal Amelian, Chairman of the SPND (military technology); Reza Mozaffari-Nia, former chairman of the SPND; and Saleh Asadi, one of the highest-ranking intelligence officers.

If, in addition to the death of Ali Khamenei, the list of casualties is confirmed, the big question that arises from the double attack is whether the Islamic republic born in 1979 will survive not only the enormous external pressure but also an explosive internal situation.

The December protests

The military offensive by Washington and Jerusalem comes amid economic fragility and mounting social tension in the country. Since 2022, following the death of young Mahsa Amini at the hands of the morality police, massive protests and repression have erupted. Last December, new protests broke out against rampant inflation, initiated by Tehran merchants.

The symptoms of discontent deepened with a youth-led mobilization against the regime. The result was a bloodbath due to the regime's indiscriminate repression: according to some reports from local human rights organizations and international observers, the death toll could have reached at least 30,000. However, the Iranian government only acknowledged 3,117 deaths. 53,000 people were arrested.

Analysts on the ground, reporting for Al Jazeera, analyzed the potential situation and outlined a range of possibilities, from a possible civil war if a power vacuum were to occur at the top of the state, to the possibility of dying while fighting.

But it is also possible that the spread of the war to neighboring US allies could create enough regional chaos to contribute to Iran's survival. Not surprisingly, Iran's response yesterday was immediate, with drone and ballistic missile attacks against Israel and US military bases in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

On the other hand, when announcing the start of operations, President Donald Trump also challenged the civilian population to seize the opportunity presented by the military coup to take control of their own destiny. Benjamin Netanyahu echoed this call.

At the moment, with the fires raging across the region for less than 24 hours, it's too early to know which way the tide will turn. But even Al Jazeera analysts themselves recalled that the 2003 US invasion of Iraq was an absolute disaster whose consequences are still being felt.