Israel hits Tehran again after killing Khamenei, leadership council takes over

Israel launched a new wave of strikes on Tehran on Sunday, March 1, and Iran responded with more missile barrages, a day after the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei pitched the Middle East and the global economy into deepening uncertainty.

US and Israeli strikes — and Iranian retaliation — sent shockwaves worldwide through sectors from shipping to air travel to oil, amid warnings of rising energy costs and disruption to business in the Gulf region.

The Israeli military said it had intercepted projectiles that were launched from Lebanon early Monday morning, March 3, in what could be the first sign of Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim armed group Hezbollah, long one of Tehran’s principal allies in the Middle East, entering the conflict.

US President Donald Trump said the attack was intended to ensure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, to contain its missile program and to eliminate threats to the United States and its allies. The US has hit more than 1,000 Iranian targets since the start of the campaign, the US Central Command said.

In a video statement posted to his Truth Social site, Trump vowed military strikes will continue until “all our objectives are achieved.” He said the assault had wiped out Iran’s military command and destroyed nine Iranian navy ships and a naval building.

Trump said the Iranian military and police should lay down their arms, promising immunity for those who surrender and threatening “certain death” for those who resist. He reiterated calls for the Iranian people to revolt against the government.

“I call upon all Iranian patriots who yearn for freedom to seize this moment, to be brave, be bold, be heroic and take back your country,” Trump said in the pre-recorded video. “America is with you.”

Earlier in an interview with the Atlantic magazine, Trump said Iran’s leadership wanted to talk to him and he had agreed.

In a separate interview with the Daily Mail, he said the military campaign against Iran could continue for the next four weeks.

But the Republican president is yet to lay out his longer-term aims in Iran, which faces a power vacuum that could leave it in chaos, with unforeseeable consequences for the region.

The first US casualties of the campaign, including the deaths of three service personnel, were confirmed on Sunday.

Trump paid tribute to the three killed as “true American patriots” but warned that there will likely be more casualties.

“That’s the way it is,” he said.

With the vital Strait of Hormuz closed and the Gulf cities of Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Doha under bombardment, the scale of the risk taken by Trump in attacking Iran months before US midterm elections that will decide control of Congress is becoming clearer.

Only around one in four Americans approve of the operation, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll on Sunday. And if Hormuz — the passage for about 20% of world oil supplies — remains closed for more than a few days, US consumers will start to feel the pressure on prices at the pumps.

Existential challenge for Iran

The Israeli military said late on Sunday that its air force had established aerial superiority over Tehran, and that a wave of strikes across the capital had targeted intelligence, security, and military command centers.

But the prospect of Hezbollah involvement threatened to widen the conflict further. Hezbollah did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and Reuters was unable to verify the origins of the projectiles the Israeli military said it intercepted. Israel and Lebanon agreed to a US-brokered ceasefire in 2024.

Israel’s present focus is to undermine the Iranian government so that it collapses, an Israeli official said on condition of anonymity, adding that Israel “is acting in its own ways” to get Iranians to take to the streets.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Sunday they had hit three US and UK oil tankers in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, and attacked military bases in Kuwait and Bahrain with drones and missiles. Shipping data showed hundreds of vessels including oil and gas tankers dropping anchor in nearby waters with traders expecting sharp jumps in crude oil prices on Monday.

Global air travel was also heavily disrupted as continued air strikes kept closed major Middle Eastern airports, including Dubai — the world’s busiest international hub — in one of the biggest aviation interruptions in recent years.

In Iran, facing its biggest existential challenge since the 1980-88 war with Iraq, President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardian Council had temporarily assumed the duties of Supreme Leader.

Oman’s foreign ministry said Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi had indicated Tehran was open to de-escalation. But in a post on X, Araqchi suggested Iran was ready to keep fighting.

“We’ve had two decades to study defeats of the US military to our immediate east and west,” he wrote. “Bombings in our capital have no impact on our ability to conduct war.”

It remained unclear what the longer-term prospects were for Iran to rebuild its leadership and replace the 86-year-old Khamenei, who had held power since the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989.

Russian President Vladimir Putindenounced Khamenei’s death as a cynical murder and China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi described it as “blatant killing.”

Iran hits back

As Iran fired renewed missile barrages across the region, air raid sirens sounded across Israel late on Sunday, warning of the latest incoming attack, including in Tel Aviv, where projectiles were seen streaking across the night sky.

The projectiles launched from Lebanon led to sirens sounding in several areas in northern Israel early on Monday.

Lebanon’s presidency said on Saturday it had been told by the US ambassador that Israel would not escalate against Lebanon as long as there are no hostile acts from the Lebanese side.

Israel’s ambulance service said nine people were killed in the town of Beit Shemesh, the United Arab Emirates said Iranian attacks killed three people, and Kuwait reported one dead.

Inside Iran, some grieved for Khamenei while others celebrated his death, exposing a deep fault line in the stunned country.

Thousands of Iranians were killed in a crackdown authorized by Khamenei against anti-government protests in January, the deadliest wave of unrest since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

Khamenei, who built Iran into a powerful anti-US force and spread its sway across the Middle East during his 36-year iron-fisted rule, was working in his office at the time of Saturday’s attack, state media said. The raid also killed his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law, and son-in-law.

Experts said that while his death and those of other Iranian leaders would deal Iran a major blow, it would not necessarily spell the end of Iran’s entrenched clerical rule or the sway of the elite Revolutionary Guards over the population. – Rappler.com