Tehran. The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been confirmed by Iran’s state media. Quoting two Iranian sources, it has been said that shortly before the attack, Khamenei was meeting at a secure place with his two senior advisers, Ali Larijani and Ali Shamkhani. The Israel Defense Forces said Ali Shamkhani was also killed in the attacks on Saturday morning, while President Trump spoke of the death of the Iranian Supreme Leader. Larijani had made a post on X from his social media account on Saturday night and at present his condition is not known.
In a media report, a US source said that the Israeli intelligence agency was aware that Khamenei was going to hold a meeting in Tehran in the evening, but before this the intelligence agency also came to know that the Supreme Leader was also going to hold a meeting on Saturday morning, hence the Israeli attack was carried out in the morning. Although the location of the meeting was not disclosed, he was killed in the initial attacks at a secure compound in Tehran.
Apart from Israel, Saudi Arabia also pressured Trump to attack Iran, the report said. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman supported the attack on Iran despite openly supporting a diplomatic solution. The report said the crown prince told Iranian President Masoud Pejeshkian that Saudi Arabia would not allow its airspace or territory to be used for attacks against Iran, but in talks with US officials he warned that if Washington did not use its large military forces in the Middle East, Iran would emerge stronger and more dangerous.
The report said Khalid bin Salman, brother of the Saudi Crown Prince, had asked US officials to carry out the attack in private meetings during a visit to Washington in January. The report said Trump ultimately decided to go ahead with the attack despite his past policy and even though Iran posed no direct threat to US territory. The Crown Prince’s dual stance perhaps reflects his desire to avoid Iranian retaliation against Saudi oil infrastructure. People close to him admitted that he considered Tehran to be Riyadh’s main regional enemy.
