TEHRAN – Iran state television announced a 40-day mourning period and seven public holidays following the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who had been in power since 1989.
“With the martyrdom of the supreme leader, his path and mission neither will be lost nor will be forgotten, on the other hand, they will be pursued with greater vigour and zeal,” a presenter said.
Iranian state media announced Khamenei’s death early on Sunday. A senior Israeli official told Reuters earlier that the Iranian leader’s body had been found after a strike and US President Donald Trump said the United States worked closely with Israel to target the man who led Iran since 1989.
Iran has called the strikes unprovoked and illegal and responded with missiles fired at Israel and at least seven other countries, including Gulf states that host US bases.
Trump, making the biggest foreign-policy gamble of his presidency after campaigning for reelection as a “peace president,” said the strikes were aimed at ending a decades-long threat from Iran and ensuring it could not develop a nuclear weapon.
Intelligence and tracking systems monitored Khamenei’s whereabouts, Trump wrote in a Truth Social post, adding that “there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do.”
