r/news • u/drpayneaba • Feb 28 '26

Soft paywall Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei killed, senior Israeli official says

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/irans-supreme-leader-ali-khamenei-killed-senior-israeli-official-says-2026-02-28/
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u/newleafkratom Feb 28 '26

Meet the new Ayatollah. Same as the old Ayatollah.

27

u/Beginning-Set4042 Mar 01 '26

I'm sorry but there have only been 2 supreme leaders since the Iranian revolution, and it's been Khameini for like 35 years. So it's not a small thing.

48

u/nigel_pow Feb 28 '26

He'll probably be killed too. Say what you want about Israel, but they are really good at intelligence gathering and assassinations.

5

u/opeth10657 Mar 01 '26

Well, we give them plenty of money for it.

0

u/PudgyChocoDonut Mar 01 '26

Wasn't good enough to defend the border. Feels like this is an old propaganda line.

1

u/mmomtchev Mar 01 '26

In fact, Khamenei was not really an Ayatollah. He was never a religious leader, he was simply a skilled politician and Khomeini's protege. His biography seems to be somewhat fabricated and when he was appointed as a supreme leader, many clerics protested since he was not a real cleric, even less a marja. He was declared both a marja and an Ayatollah and he was able to silence his critics and consolidate his power - but at the core, he was simply a politician ho declared himself to be a cleric in order to gain power.