Iran vows revenge after death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead following missile strikes by the US and Israel against Iran.The attack on Iran by the US and Israel had prompted retaliation from Tehran, with missiles reported to have targeted Israel and countries across the Middle East.Donald Trump has warned Iran against launching further retaliatory attacks, warning that if Iran does so, it will be hit with a force that has “never been seen before”.Israel has launched another wave of strikes on Iran this morning

Iran’s first vice-president Mohammad Reza Aref has issued a statement via Iranian state media outlet IRNA saying that while the country is grieving it is not passive.

“Today, Islamic Iran is in mourning; but this mourning is not a mourning of passivity,” he said.

In the statement he said the US And Israel thought they would be able to “shake the soul of a nation” by killing Khamenei but he warned that the Islamic Revolution “becomes more alive and rooted through martyrdom”.

He said the strategy as of now would be to protect national stability and internal cohesion.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee will meet with her counterparts in the EU to discuss the crisis in the Middle East later today and her department has issued advice to people currently in the region and those hoping to travel from and through it in the hours ahead.

As we have been reporting, Iran fired missiles at targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states overnight and this morning and has vowed massive retaliation for the killing of Khamenei by the US and Israel.

The 86-year-old’s death “showed that he consistently stood among the people and at the forefront of his responsibilities, confronting what officials call global arrogance,” Iranian state TV said.

Iran’s Cabinet vowed that this “great crime will never go unanswered” and the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened to launch its “most intense offensive operation” ever, targeting Israeli and American bases.

“You have crossed our red line and must pay the price,” Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said in a televised address earlier today. “We will deliver such devastating blows that you yourselves will be driven to beg.”

Hundreds of civilians ​were killed and injured in the US and Israeli strikes, Iran’s ambassador to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council late last night.

Iravani called Iran’s retaliatory attacks a matter of self defence, describing the bases of hostile forces as legitimate military targets.

In his remarks, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who urged an immediate cessation of hostilities, said he deeply regretted that an opportunity for diplomacy had been “squandered.”

Envoys from Russia and China criticised both the US and Israel for launching the strikes while Tehran was negotiating with Washington.

Iran had been “stabbed in the back,” said Russian UN envoy Vasily Nebenzya, disputing ​the U.S. justification of the attacks as preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

China called for an immediate ceasefire, urging all sides to avoid escalation and ​resume talks, while the official Xinhua news agency criticised the attacks on Sunday as “brazen aggression against a sovereign nation”.

Senior US officials said the latest talks showed Iran was unwilling to give up its ability to enrich uranium, saying it was wanted for nuclear energy, although US officials said it would enable the country to build a nuclear bomb.

Smoke plumes hang over Dubai following Iranian strikes overnight and this morning.

Thousands of flights have been disrupted in the wake of the escalating conflict engulfing the Middle East, with Dubai’s main airport — the world’s busiest aviation hub — effectively shut down after it was hit by a suspected aerial strike.

There have been more than 2,300 flight cancellations in the region, from Bahrain to Tel Aviv, in the past day, with more than 90 per cent of departures from Dubai being scrapped, according to FlightAware data.

Emirates has cancelled 87 per cent of its scheduled flights while FlyDubai canceling 89%. The cancellation rate at Etihad, Gulf Air and Qatar Airways were 67 per cent, 79 per cent and 36 per cent respectively, according to the data.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been stranded as the region functions as a global super-connector, linking any two points on the planet with one single stop in airports like Dubai, Doha or Abu Dhabi.

That’s helped carriers including Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad to create massive fleets that funnel passengers through their hubs, turning the Middle East into a vital artery for global air-traffic flows.

Though the Persian Gulf has become accustomed to disruptions as the skies over large swaths of the Middle East suffered restrictions several times during the past two years, an outright suspension for many hours on a massive regional scale is unprecedented, highlighting the stakes in the conflict that’s pitting Iran against Israel and the US.

Emirates extended flight cancellations into Sunday morning, while Qatar Airways said operations are suspended until further notice, with updates planned for later. Etihad Airways said on Saturday that it will maintain the suspension at least until Sunday afternoon.

Khamenei’s death raises the question of who will rule Iran next, as he had not publicly designated a successor. The Assembly of Experts, the clerical body responsible for selecting the supreme leader, is required to appoint a new leader. In the interim, a council comprising the president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council assumes the leader’s duties.

Israel has launched another wave of strikes on Iran this morning, as Iranians wake up to the news that the Ayatollah is dead.

Shortly after 6 am local time (2am Irish time) air raid sirens repeatedly sounded across Israel, warning residents of an incoming attack. In Tel Aviv, a series of explosions were heard as Israel’s sophisticated air defense system sought to ‌intercept ‌the ​latest Iranian offensive. There was no immediate report of any damage or injuries.

Witnesses in the Gulf cities of Dubai and Doha heard several loud blasts.

Iranian ⁠TV has just reported that ​the country’s ⁠armed ​forces chief ​of ‌staff, Abdolrahim ​Mousavi, ⁠was also killed ⁠in the US and Israeli air ​strikes on Saturday.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in the wave of strikes launched by the US and Israel on Saturday morning, the country’s state media confirmed overnight.

In a statement issued in the early hours of Sunday, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it would soon retaliate for the death of the 86-year-old who has been in charge in Iran since 1989, with their biggest offensive against US bases in the region and Israel.

And in response, the US President Donald Trump said Iran would be hit “with ‌a force that has never ​been seen before,” if the threat is acted upon.

“Iran ​just stated that they are ⁠going ​to hit ​very hard today, harder ‌than they have ​ever been hit before,” ⁠Trump ⁠said in ​a post on Truth Social, adding that: “THEY BETTER NOT DO THAT, HOWEVER, BECAUSE IF ‌THEY DO, WE ⁠WILL HIT THEM WITH A FORCE ‌THAT HAS NEVER BEEN SEEN BEFORE!”

There have been reports of some Iranians taking to the streets in Tehran, the nearby city of Karaj and the central city of Isfahan to celebrate after the reports of Khamenei’s death emerged.

Videos posted on social media, also showed celebrations elsewhere.

Israel and the United States timed the attacks to coincide with a meeting of Khamenei and his top aides, said US sources.

He was working in his office at the time of Saturday’s attack, state media said and his daughter, grandchild, daughter-in-law and son-in-law were also killed.

In a statement, the Revolutionary Guards mourned the loss of “a ‌great leader.”

Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ⁠called on Iranians to rise up and overthrow their government after the attacks, which took out at least seven senior military commanders, Israel’s military said.

“This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after Khamenei’s body was found.

Experts said that while the deaths of Khamenei and other Iranian leaders will have dealt the country a major blow, it would not necessarily spell the end of Iran’s ​entrenched clerical rule or the Revolutionary Guards’ sway over the population.