Tension between Tehran and the Gulf area suddenly rose after the US and Israeli attack against Iranian targets, with the Islamic Republic announcing “very harsh” retaliation against Israel and US bases in the region after the death of leader Ali Khamenei. The Pasdaran’s threats also had immediate repercussions on the United Arab Emirates: in Dubai several flights were suspended or canceled for security reasons, while the authorities monitored the evolution of the crisis. The fear is that the escalation could spread, involving strategic and logistical hubs in the Persian Gulf, a crucial area for commercial and military traffic. Meanwhile, in the morning, an Iranian missile hit Dubai airport.
He was killed
A senior Israeli security official, already when it was evening in Italy yesterday, confirmed to the national media that Ali Khamenei “has been eliminated”. A photo of the body of the Iranian Supreme Leader was “shown” to the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and to the American President, Donald Trump. Two Israeli broadcasters reported it.
Even independent media such as Iran International, which is a newspaper based in London, report that Ali Khamenei was killed during the attack by the United States and Israel: in Tehran people clapped at the windows to celebrate the event. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Esmaei Baghaei said today that she had nothing to say on the matter.
Khamenei has always governed by prioritizing his own survival and that of the theocratic system he leads, remaining faithful to a profoundly anti-Western culture. Without the popular support, charisma and theological qualifications of the father of the Islamic Revolution and his mentor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he is responsible for the transformation of the Islamic Republic from a clerical autocracy into a military one, with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) having gained ample space in politics and the national economy and which could play an increasingly evident role, along the lines of the armed forces of Pakistan or Egypt.
Pezeshkian: “Killing Khamenei is war on Islam, revenge is duty”
The president of Iran, Masoud Pezeshkian, declared that the killing of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, amounted to “a declaration of war on all Muslims”, adding that “avenging his death “is a right and also a legitimate duty”. “The assassination of the highest political authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran and an important leader of world Shiism… is perceived as an open declaration of war against Muslims, and against Shiites, throughout the world,” he told state TV. Iran “considers it its legitimate duty and right to avenge the authors and masterminds of this historic crime.”
Putin’s condolences for Khamenei, “an eminent statesman”
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message of condolences to his Iranian counterpart Massud Pezeshkian for the killing of Leader Ali Khamenei, defining him as “an eminent statesman, who made a huge personal contribution to the development of friendly Russian-Iranian relations, bringing them to the level of a global strategic partnership”. This was reported by the Ria Novosti agency.
Mourning
Iran today decreed a period of mourning of 40 days and 7 public holidays after the death, at the age of 86, of the supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, Ali Khamenei, in power since 1989. “With the martyrdom of the supreme leader, his path and his mission will not be lost or forgotten, but on the contrary will be carried forward with greater vigor and zeal”, declared a presenter on state television.
The other illustrious victims
Khamenei, but not only. There are also other illustrious victims after the US and Israeli raid. Iranian Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh was killed along with Army Chief of Staff Sayyid Abdolrahim Mousavi in a raid by Israeli and American forces. The Iranian media reported it. The two regime representatives were hit in an attack that targeted a meeting of the Defense Council. According to IribNews, Sardar Sepehid Shahid Mohammad Pa Kapoor, commander of the Armed Forces, and Amir Daryasal Shams Ali Shamkhani, advisor to the Supreme Commander and secretary of the Defense Council, also lost their lives in the action.
The post Khamenei
«We will continue the path traced by the leader. We are prepared for a moment like this and ready to face any scenario.” The President of the Iranian Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said this today. Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Ejei also said in a message that “the evil United States and the shameful Zionist regime must know that we will not forget the blood of our leader and will continue his brilliant path.”
The attacks on Dubai
Dubai airport was hit by an Iranian missile. This was reported by Iranian state television IribNews, showing images of a tall column of smoke rising from a building.
Repercussions for the United States
Demonstrators set fire to the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, in protest at the Israeli and US raids in Iran which cost the life, among other things, of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This was reported by the Iranian Mehr agency.
Attack on US consulate in Karachi, at least 8 dead
At least eight people have been killed in pro-Iranian protests outside the US consulate in the Pakistani city of Karachi. This was reported by a spokesperson for the emergency services. “We have transferred at least eight bodies to public hospitals in Karachi and 20 people are injured,” said Muhamad Amin, spokesman for the Edhi Foundation’s rescue service. Hundreds of pro-Iranian protesters had attempted to storm the consulate after the US and Israeli attacks on Iran. Other sources speak of at least 10 deaths.
Italians in Dubai: “Alert but we are not worried”
«We don’t know when we will leave again. We saw trails in the sky due to drones intercepted by anti-aircraft fire and some fires on the ground. We were supposed to return on Monday but at the moment no one can tell us when we will be back.” This is what Daniele Bovo from Verona, 21 years old, says, stuck in Dubai after the Israeli and US attack in Iran together with 200 other classmates from a group of students. The group, belonging to the “Ambassadors of the Future” project of the World Student Connection association, is blocked due to the closure of Dubai airport, hit yesterday by a drone. At the moment, the consulate general of Dubai is also providing assistance to the group, followed by tutors and which includes a dozen Venetians including three sixteen-year-old students from the PF Calvi institute in Padua. “I distinctly heard an explosion yesterday and last night the authorities advised not to leave the house. I live two hundred meters from the Fairmont hotels, hit yesterday”, explains Alberto Boato, a Venetian entrepreneur who has lived in Dubai for years. “The damage was all in all limited in Dubai and on the Palm. No explosion has been heard in the last four hours – explains Boato – we are obviously careful being able to say that the issue here is being followed well by the authorities, with precise information and the right precautions.”
Flights suspended to Dubai and Tel Aviv
This can be read in an update published on the airline’s website which specifies that «the following airspaces will not be used until March 7: Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Dammam and Iran. In addition, UAE airspace will not be used until March 4. Furthermore, for operational reasons flights to and from Riyadh are suspended from 2 to 4 March”. Passengers can request rerouting on an alternative flight or a ticket refund.
Doubts about the killing of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was also killed in the first attack launched on Saturday morning by Israel and the US on Iran. The former president’s office, however, denied the news spread by the Iranian media, starting with the semi-official Ilna news agency, according to which the politician died as a result of the Israeli and United States raids on Iran. The news, relaunched by the Israeli media, arrived in the same minutes in which the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that it had attacked the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Gulf. “The aircraft carrier was hit by four ballistic missiles,” the Pasdaran said in a statement released by local media, warning that “the land and sea will increasingly become the cemetery of terrorist attackers.” The United States denies this, stating that the Lincoln ‘was not hit and the missiles launched did not even graze it’.
The Pope asks to stop the weapons. “Stability and peace are not built with mutual threats nor with weapons that sow destruction, pain and death but only through a reasonable, responsible and authentic dialogue, stated the Pontiff at the Angelus. At the moment, three Americans have lost their lives in the Epic Fury operation and five have been injured, according to what the US Central Command has announced. In Israel, in Beit Shemesh, an Iranian missile hit an apartment building, causing the death of eight people and dozens of injured, some of them in serious conditions. The first victims were also counted in the Emirates: three people were killed and 58 injured in Iran’s raids. They were a Pakistani citizen, a Nepalese and a Bangladeshi, the Emirates Ministry of Defense declared, adding that since the start of the Iranian attacks the Emirates have detected 165 ballistic missiles, 152 of which were destroyed, as well as two cruise missiles.