Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform that 86-year-old Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli strikes, which began early on Saturday.Aljazeera reported.
He was unable to avoid our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he, or the other leaders that have been killed along with him, could do,” the US president wrote.
“This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their Country,” he said. “Hopefully, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] and Police will peacefully merge with the Iranian Patriots.”
Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed there were “growing signs” that Khamenei had been killed.
Additionally, the Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official, reported that Khamenei’s body has been located.
But Iran’s Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported that Khamenei remained “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”.
In what appeared to be a response to the claims, the head of public relations at Khamenei’s office accused the country’s enemies of “mental warfare”.
“The enemy is resorting to mental warfare; all should be aware,” the official was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said there has so far been no official confirmation of Khamenei’s killing from Tehran.
He noted that Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi told NBC News earlier that, “as far as I know”, Iran’s supreme leader, as well as other top Iranian officials, remained in good health.
Khamenei has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989, succeeding the founder of the post-shah Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who steered Iran’s 1979 revolution.
The supreme leader holds ultimate authority over all branches of government, the military and the judiciary, while also acting as the country’s spiritual leader.
Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center in Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera that Iran “has a plan” in place in the event that Khamenei’s death is confirmed.
