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EXPERT COMMENT

What do the attacks mean for the regime after the death of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? How will they affect ordinary Iranians, and the region? And what does President Trump hope to achieve? Chatham House experts provide insights.

The United States and Israel launched multiple air strikes across Iran on Saturday 28 February, striking multiple targets and killing the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

US President Donald Trump announced ‘major combat operations in Iran’ and said later on Saturday that Khamenei had been killed.

Iranian state media announced the supreme leader’s death early on Sunday.

Trump said: ‘Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent threats from the Iranian regime’. He said Iran was pursuing a nuclear weapons programme – a claim denied by Tehran. ‘They can never have a nuclear weapon,’ he said.

Both Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Iranians to pursue regime change. In a message addressed to ‘the great, proud people of Iran,’ Trump said: ‘The hour of your freedom is at hand…when we are finished, take over your government, it will be yours to take. This will be, probably, your only chance for generations.’

Iran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel, and across the region.

Here Chatham House experts provide early analysis of the meaning of the strikes for Iran, the region and the world.

Click here to continue reading the full version of this Expert Comment on the Chatham House website.