Trump warns vs. retaliation; Strait of Hormuz closed
Cheers in Tehran. Retaliation and mourning by Iran. Protests in some parts of the Muslim world, celebrations in others.
The world greeted with jubilation, anger or trepidation the news Sunday that Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic republic one day earlier.
Iranians took to the streets cheering with joy, setting off fireworks and playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s
death, according to witnesses and video footage verified by Agence France Presse.
The celebrations in Tehran began shortly after 11:00 pm (1930 GMT), according to multiple witnesses and audio recordings.
People were not, however, coming out en masse to celebrate, according to social media.
Many Iranians were fearful after the deadly crackdown on mass anti-government protests in January.
Mourning in Tehran
The thousands who did gather in the centre of Iran’s capital were instead mourning Khamenei’s death, according to AFP journalists.
The mourners, dressed mostly in black and some crying, chanted “death to America” and “death to Israel” in Enghelab (Revolution) Square, with many waving Iran’s flags and holding photos of Khamenei.
Iranian state television announced a 40-day mourning period and seven public holidays.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on Sunday branded Khamenei’s killing a “declaration of war against Muslims” by Israel and the United States.
Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards vowed earlier on Sunday to punish Khamenei’s “murderers”.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for oil and gas shipments, is unsafe due to US and Israeli attacks and was therefore closed to ships on Saturday, local media reported.
“The IRGC has warned various ships that due to the insecure atmosphere around the strait because of the military aggression by the US and Israel and the responses of Iran, it is not safe to pass through the strait at the moment,” the Tasnim news agency reported.
“With the cessation of passage of ships and tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, the strait has been basically closed.”
‘Serious violation ‘
China said Sunday the killing was “a serious violation of Iran’s sovereignty and security, a trampling on the aims and principles of the UN Charter and the basic norms of international relations”.
“China firmly opposes and strongly condemns this,” Beijing’s foreign ministry statement added in a statement, calling for “immediate halting of military operations”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, a key ally of Tehran, on Sunday slammed Khamenei’s killing as a “a cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law”.
In a letter to Pezeshkian published by the Kremlin, Putin also expressed his “deepest condolences for the assassination”.
‘Most evil, cruel tyrant’
“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead,” US President Donald Trump said, announcing the killing on his Truth Social network late Saturday.
The killing “is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country,” Trump said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also called for Iranians to “overthrow the regime” after Khamenei’s killing.
“For more than three and a half decades, this cruel tyrant has spread terror across the world while oppressing his own people, while working tirelessly and without pause on a plan to destroy Israel,” he said in a televised statement.
‘Irreparable chasm’
Pope Leo XIV on Sunday called for an end to the “spiral of violence”.
“Faced with the possibility of a tragedy of enormous proportions, I appeal to the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility to stop the spiral of violence before it becomes an irreparable chasm,” the pope told a crowd in St Peter’s Square.
At least nine people were killed as hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters tried to storm the United States consulate in the Pakistan megacity of Karachi on Sunday, according to a hospital toll seen by AFP.
Hundreds of Iraqis also attempted Sunday to storm Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, where the US embassy is located, an AFP journalist reported.
Protests also took place in Srinagar, in Indian-administered Kashmir.
‘Dustbin of history’
The son of Iran’s late shah on Saturday hailed the killing, saying the Islamic republic that replaced his pro-Western father was finished.
“With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively come to an end and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history,” Reza Pahlavi wrote on X.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Sunday that the killing was a “defining moment”.
“What comes next is uncertain. But there is now an open path to a different Iran, one that its people may have greater freedom to shape,” Kallas wrote on X.
‘Few’ will mourn
UK Defence Secretary John Healey said on Sunday that “few people will mourn” Khamenei, echoing Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
Khamenei “was responsible for the regime’s ballistic missile and nuclear programme, support for armed proxies and its brutal acts of violence and intimidation against its own people”, Albanese told reporters.
French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon likewise said that France “could only be satisfied with his demise”, calling him a “bloodthirsty dictator”.
Jubilant Iranian-Americans on Saturday took to the streets from Boston to Los Angeles to cheer Khamenei’s death.
In Los Angeles, home to a massive Iranian diaspora, singing and ululating marchers carried flags of shah-era Iran and posters bearing Trump’s image, with some wearing “Free Iran” shirts.
North Korea condemned on Sunday the US-Israeli attack as an “illegal act of aggression”.
Pyongyang said the military actions showed the “shameless and gangster-like conduct” of the two allies, who it said had chosen to “abuse military force to fulfil their selfish and hegemonic ambitions”.
Iran’s ally Hamas on Sunday mourned Khamenei. “The US and the fascist occupation government bear full responsibility for this blatant aggression and heinous crime,” the Palestinian Islamist group said.
Fellow Iran proxy Hezbollah likewise vowed to “undertake our duty of confronting the aggression” of Israel and the US.
As crowds demanded revenge — and Iran’s army announced strikes targeting US bases in the Gulf and Iraqi Kurdistan — Trump threatened to unleash “force that has never been seen before” and urged Iran’s people to rise up and seize power.
More explosions, global reactions
Despite the US leader’s stark warning, more explosions were heard in Jerusalem, Dubai, Doha and Manama as Israeli and Gulf air defense systems battled a renewed wave of Iranian missiles and drones.
Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday that avenging the killing of Khamenei was a right and obligation of the Islamic republic.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime,” said Pezeshkian in a statement carried by state TV.
Iran’s first retaliatory strikes on Saturday had hit all the Gulf states apart from Oman, which had tried to be a mediator in US-Iran talks, but on Sunday the country’s commercial port of Duqm was hit by two drones, injuring a foreign worker, the Oman News Agency said.
Outrage at Saturday’s wave of US and Israel strikes against Iran, which killed 86-year-old Khamanei and some other senior figures, also spilled over into neighbouring Iraq and Pakistan, where crowds attempted to storm US diplomatic facilities.
At the United Nations late Saturday, the US and Israel defended their attacks on Iran, which called the resulting civilian deaths a “war crime” during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned the latest developments.
“I call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and de-escalation,” he said in a statement, adding that the attacks on both sides undermined international peace and security.
UN rights chief Volker Turk said further attacks would “only result in death, destruction and human misery”.
‘Unforgettable lesson’
In the Pakistani city of Karachi at least eight people were killed during pro-Iran protests at the US consulate, according to Muhammad Amin, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation rescue service, who added that most had bullet wounds.
In Tehran, cheers could be heard on the streets after reports first emerged from Israel of the death of Khamenei, as plumes of black smoke still hovered over the district where he usually resided, witnesses told AFP. AFP
Later, in Tehran’s Enghlab square, thousands of mourners, dressed mostly in black and waving Iran’s flag, demanded retaliation against the United States and Israel, according to AFP journalists.
In Iran, the Red Crescent said strikes had left 201 people dead and injured hundreds more.
Iran’s judiciary confirmed that Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Khamenei, and the head of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Pakpour, were both killed.
One prominent survivor, Ali Larijani, head of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, vowed defiance.
“The brave soldiers and the great nation of Iran will teach an unforgettable lesson to the international oppressors,” he said.
Iran initially responded to the Israel-US attack with a flurry of missile and drone strikes across the Middle East, killing at least two people in Abu Dhabi and another in Tel Aviv, before following up with a new wave after state media confirmed Khamenei’s death.
Question on succession
Iran had already seen intense speculation on a successor to Khamenei, given his age. Upon his death, many observers expected greater power for the Revolutionary Guards, which are deeply entrenched in the Iranian economy.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and two other top officials would lead Iran in the transitional period following Khamenei’s death, state television reported on Sunday.
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late pro-Western shah deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution, said that any successor within the system would be illegitimate.
Hailing the demise of Khamenei, only the second supreme leader of the cleric-run state after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Pahlavi said, “With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively come to an end and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in exile near Washington, has presented himself as a transitional figure to a secular democracy, but he does not enjoy support from across the opposition.
Editor’s Note: This is an updated article. Originally posted with the headline: “Cheers, music, anger: World reacts as Iran’s Khamenei is killed”
