HIBAPRESS
Iranian television confirmed on Sunday the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Israeli airstrikes that targeted Iran on Saturday, hours after US President Donald Trump announced his death.
The Iranian government announced a national mourning period in the country for 40 days and the closure of official departments for 7 days. The Supreme National Security Council of Iran said that "the martyrdom of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be a starting point for a great uprising against the world's tyrants," according to its expression, while the Iranian Revolutionary Guard vowed to avenge the killing of the Supreme Leader. The Fares Agency said that the Iranian Supreme Leader was killed in his office while at work on Saturday morning. It also quoted sources close to the Iranian Supreme Leader's office confirming the killing of the Iranian Supreme Leader's daughter, son-in-law, granddaughter, and son's wife in the Israeli strikes. Regarding the transitional phase following the killing of Khamenei, Mohammad Mokhber, the assistant to the Iranian Supreme Leader, said that it would be handled by President Masoud Pezeshkian, Head of the Judiciary Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, in addition to a jurist from the Guardian Council. The Iranian presidency considered the assassination of Khamenei a "major crime that will not go unanswered" and added, "We will respond with all our force and steadfastness to the perpetrators of the assassination crime and those behind them." (Al Jazeera)
