Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reportedly died following a United States and Israeli airstrike in Tehran.
According to Fox News, Israeli leaders confirmed that Khamenei’s compound and offices were reduced to rubble early Saturday after a targeted strike in downtown Tehran.
A senior analyst, Behnam Ben Taleblu, director of the Iran program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), described Khamenei as a calculating leader.
“Khamenei was the contemporary Middle East’s longest-serving autocrat. He did not get to be that way by being a gambler.
“Khamenei was an ideologue, but one who ruthlessly pursued the preservation and protection of his ideology, often taking two steps forward and one step back,” Taleblu told Fox News.
The reported development comes amid escalating tensions in the region, following coordinated military actions involving Israel and the United States against Iranian targets.
Born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, eastern Iran, Khamenei was among the Islamist activists who played a central role in the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was quoted as claiming there were indications that Khamenei had died, although official confirmation from Iranian authorities was still being awaited as of press time.
