



Mint Explainer | Ali Khamenei is killed in US-Israel strikes. What's next for Iran?
Mint examines how events in Iran will unfold and their implications for India and the rest of the world.Late on Saturday, the US and Israeli forces launched ‘Operation Epic Fury’—a massive military operation that not only killed Iran's supreme leader Khamenei but also 40 senior officials, disrupting the Islamic Republic’s command and control. The strikes happened across 24 of Iran’s 31 provinces. Iran retaliated by firing missiles and drones into Israel and other Arab states in the region.
Most of them were intercepted by air defence systems. Some got through and created some damage. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has vowed ‘a massive and powerful offensive operation in the history of the Islamic Republic.The US cited an imminent threat from Iran as the reason for its attack, which did not have the approval of the UN Security Council.
US President Donald Trump said Iran was close to developing an intercontinental ballistic missile and a nuclear weapon. This is just months after the US-Israel joint operations ‘obliterated’ Iran’s nuclear facilities in June 2025. Regime change, it appears, is the true motive.
In his remarks after the attacks began, Trump told the Iranian people that the hour of their freedom is at hand, and this will probably be their only chance to effect regime change for generations.The Islamic regime is at its weakest now. Its proxies, the Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the Houthis in Yemen, have either been decimated or significantly weakened. Public protests increased across Iran due to deteriorating economic conditions, and these were put down with a heavy hand.
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