Donald Trump has claimed 48 leaders have been killed in US and Israeli strikes on Iran, as Israeli media reports former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is among the dead following Saturday’s coordinated attacks.
“Nobody can believe the success we’re having, 48 leaders are gone in one shot,” President Trump told Fox News. “It’s moving along. It’s moving along rapidly. This has been this way for 47 years.”
Ahmadinejad, who served as president of the Islamic Republic from 2005 to 2013, was killed in the airstrikes according to Israeli media. The former Tehran mayor’s tenure was defined by a hardline stance on Iran’s nuclear programme, strained relations with the West, and the disputed 2009 re-election that sparked widespread Green Movement protests.
The report comes hours after Iran officially announced the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, following earlier claims from Tehran that the 86-year-old was “safe and sound.” A statement from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard read: “We have lost a great leader and we are mourning him, a leader who was unique in in terms of purity of spirit, strength of faith, resourcefulness in affairs, courage in the face of the arrogant, and jihad in the path of God.”
On Iranian state news channel IRINN, images of the late leader reciting the Qur’an were broadcast beneath a black banner. The presenter read a statement from Iran’s Supreme National Security Council confirming the death whilst blaming Israel and the US.
The statement described Khamenei’s “martyrdom” as the beginning of an “uprising against the oppressors.” The Supreme National Security Council did not name a successor in its announcement as 40 days of mourning across the country was put in place.
According to Iranian state TV, Khamenei “was carrying out his assigned duties and was present at his workplace” at the time of his death during the Saturday morning strikes.
Trump told Atlantic magazine that Iran’s new leadership wants to talk to him and he has agreed to negotiations. “They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner,” the President stated.
He added: “They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long.” The comments suggest diplomatic engagement may follow the military strikes despite the scale of leadership casualties claimed by the US President.
Trump’s assertion that 48 leaders were eliminated in “one shot” indicates extensive targeting of Iran’s political and military hierarchy beyond Khamenei and Ahmadinejad. The full extent of casualties among Iranian leadership has not been independently verified.
The claim that Iran’s new leadership is seeking talks whilst still in mourning for Khamenei suggests rapid political realignment following the strikes. Who comprises this “new leadership” and whether they have authority to negotiate remains unclear.
