Iran's Khamenei dies in US and Israeli strikes

Three decades of iron-fisted rule ended Saturday when U.S. and Israeli strikes killed 86-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran.

Khamenei's grip on power for 35+ years

• Khamenei became the supreme leader in 1989 after a last-minute constitutional tweak.
• His religious credentials fell short, but a claimed deathbed wish from Khomeini sealed it.
• The Revolutionary Guards served as his loyalty engine and parallel military force.
• By the end, many Iranians viewed him as a corrupt dictator.

Dissent got crushed every single time

• The 2009 Green Revolution was smashed after he endorsed a rigged election.
• Mahsa Amini's 2022 death in custody sparked nationwide women-led protests.
• January 2026 saw security forces open fire, killing thousands of protesters.
• Each uprising ended the same way with arrests, executions, and praise for the crackdown.

Iran's nuclear saga drove everything

• A secret enrichment program got exposed back in 2002.
• Khamenei backed the 2015 deal but kept insisting on Iran's sovereign rights.
• Trump's 2018 withdrawal from that deal restarted the whole enrichment cycle.
• Iran eventually crossed the nuclear-capable threshold with enough uranium for a warhead.

Regional power plays and their cost

• Iran armed Shiite militias across Iraq after the 2003 U.S. invasion.
• Khamenei sent forces into Syria to prop up Assad, but the rebels won anyway.
• Hamas's 2023 attack on Israel got its full-throated endorsement.
• Israeli strikes in 2024 wrecked Hezbollah's leadership and military capacity.

The U.S.-Iran collision course

• Qassim Suleimani's killing in a 2020 drone strike nearly triggered all-out war.
• Iran retaliated with missiles at U.S. troops, injuring over 100 soldiers.
• A Revolutionary Guards officer then accidentally downed a Ukrainian passenger jet.
• Khamenei's government lied about it for three days before evidence forced a confession.