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00:00I'm just being told that the U.S. President, Donald Trump, has now said that Ali Khamenei,
00:05Iran's supreme leader, is indeed dead. This assessment coming from the President of the
00:11United States. I'm going to take this now to Ali Hashem and James Bayes.
00:16This is the information we have right now, that the U.S. President is saying,
00:19okay, moments ago when we started this show, the quote from Donald Trump was,
00:24I believe that that is accurate, that being an Israeli assessment of Khamenei's death.
00:30What Trump is now saying is different. He has upgraded his assessment to Khamenei is now dead.
00:37Ali Hashem. Ali Khamenei has run Iran for almost four decades. He is the embodiment of the Islamic
00:47revolution. He is the second supreme leader that Iran has ever had. We don't know for sure.
00:54Now, let's assume this is true, okay? We don't know for sure what happens in Iran.
01:00Once Ali Khamenei is confirmed dead. Well, whenever Iran is going to announce, just in case this is
01:07true, because till the moment, as we were saying, the Iranian sources are denying that the supreme
01:13leader has been killed. And now we just saw a tweet on his account on Twitter, on X. Now, just
01:19in case
01:20this is confirmed, immediately, the system is going to move the power to a council of three. The president,
01:31the head of the judiciary, and a member of the guardian council. This is according to the Iranian
01:36constitution. Then, the assembly of experts, in case they were able to convene, will have to elect a new supreme
01:44leader.
01:45But this is all... That's how the system is designed to work. Yes. But we don't know... The point I'm
01:50making is that the system is now being
01:52tested, perhaps like never before. We don't know whether those who are supposed to elect a successor to Khamenei will
02:00be able to convene. We don't know whether the
02:02system will be able to... You know what I'm going to do? As is so often the case now, this
02:09information comes on Donald Trump's social media account.
02:12So this is what he posted two minutes ago on Truth Social. Khamenei, all of this a direct quote. It's
02:18on your screens.
02:19Khamenei, one of the most evil people in history, is dead. This is not only justice for the people of
02:25Iran, but for all great Americans and those people from many countries throughout the world
02:29that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty thugs.
02:34He was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems.
02:39And working closely with Israel, there was not a thing that he or the other leaders that have been killed
02:45along with him could do.
02:47This is the single greatest chance for the Iranian people to take back their country.
02:51We are hearing that many of their IRGC, military and other security and police forces no longer want to fight
02:59and are looking for immunity from us.
03:01As I said last night, quote, now they can have immunity, later they only get death.
03:07This is a long message, so bear with us.
03:10Hopefully, Trump continues, hopefully the IRGC and police will peacefully merge with the Iranian patriots and work together as a
03:18unit to bring back the country to the greatness that it deserves.
03:21That process should soon be starting in that not only the death of Khamenei, but the country has been in
03:27only one day very much destroyed and even obliterated.
03:31The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our
03:38objective of capital letters, peace throughout the Middle East and indeed the world, exclamation mark.
03:44Thank you for your attention to this matter, President Donald J. Trump.
03:47Al Jazeera's Mike Hanna is joining us from Washington, D.C.
03:52Mike, this was posted two minutes ago.
03:56What information did you have just before this came online?
04:00What information did you have on your end?
04:02What are you hearing from your sources, whether it's the White House, whether it's the State Department or whether it's
04:07the Pentagon?
04:09Well, we heard President Trump say publicly in an interview a short while ago that he believed that the Ayatollah
04:17Khamenei was indeed dead and he said as well that he believed that a large number of the Iranian leadership
04:25had also been killed.
04:26But now we've got that full statement on Truth Social, which you just read.
04:31So you've got all the details of that particular statement making very clear that the President of the United States
04:38believes that the Ayatollah Khamenei is dead.
04:41Also noting at the end of that statement the comment that the heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue uninterrupted
04:49through the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective.
04:53Now, earlier in the day, President Trump was talking about the possibility of these strikes lasting a few days and
05:01then returning again should Iran continue its nuclear development program, as the U.S. claims that it has been doing.
05:08But in the same interview, he also said that he could last as long as it takes to take over
05:15everything.
05:16So not very clear in terms of the president's mind, whether there is a timeline in this, whether there's an
05:22off ramp to this conflict.
05:24But now we see as well the president doubling down in that Truth Social posting, confirming reports that originally originated
05:35in Israel that the Ayatollah Khamenei has been killed in these strikes, along with a number of other senior Iranian
05:42leaders.
05:44Mike Hannah, thank you very much. I want to take this to James Bays.
05:46James, a long statement. What is your first impression of this?
05:52Well, my first impression before this statement, when we had Trump just speaking about this, was perhaps Trump was repeating
05:59what he'd been told by the Israelis and it was the same Israeli chatter and the same one unconfirmed source.
06:05But now you've read out that long, very carefully drafted statement.
06:11Someone thought about that. Someone wrote it carefully. Yes, there's some Trump flourishes in there, but it's a very well
06:17prepared statement that certainly the way that would normally work.
06:22And the Trump administration doesn't always work the way that previous administrations have is that would have gone through the
06:27U.S.
06:28intelligence community. That would have gone through the CIA. There are a total of 18 different intelligence agencies in the
06:35United States.
06:36And they would, one would have thought, normally have to have a quite a high degree of confidence before putting
06:43that out.
06:44Because remember the stakes here. President Trump set this as the goal of this operation.
06:49He made it clear he wanted to remove the supreme leader. He wanted people to rise up and take over
06:55control in Iran.
06:57That was the bar he set himself. So if he is wrong about this, then he's going to it's not
07:04going to look very good.
07:06It is 2146 GMT. And I'm going to remind all our viewers just joining us of what we found out.
07:12Minutes ago, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, posted a long message on his social media, Truth Social,
07:18saying that the supreme leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a nemesis of the United States, is now dead.
07:25Those are the words of Donald Trump. The message goes something like this.
07:28He is dead. This is justice. The words of Donald Trump.
07:31This is justice for all the people whom he has hurt.
07:33He was unable to avoid our intelligence and our tracking system.
07:37And Donald Trump frames this as a chance for Iranians to take back their country.
07:42You see the message there on your screen, to take back their country.
07:45Donald Trump also says two more crucial things.
07:48He is hearing that the IRGC, that is Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps,
07:52that are really the military backbone of this system, of the Iranian Islamic Revolution,
07:59he's hearing, he says, that the IRGC may no longer want to fight.
08:03Remember that Donald Trump this morning, when he declared war on Iran,
08:06had said, lay down, addressing the IRGC, and all of Iran's law enforcement and security forces
08:11had said, lay down your weapons and you will get immunity.
08:14He is saying that that may be happening, his words.
08:19And he expresses hope that the police, IRGC, and law enforcement will now side with the Iranian population,
08:25all of this again in Donald Trump's framing, and take back their country.
08:30But that the U.S. bombing on Iran will very much continue throughout the week.
08:34That is the substance of the message by the U.S. president.
08:39Your thoughts, Ali?
08:40Well, the statement is clear from the American side, from the Israeli side, very certain.
08:48And the amount of certainty that we are seeing from the Israelis and the Americans
08:53gives us indication, very strong indication that this has happened.
08:57Till the moment we don't have a voice from Iran coming out and saying this is not true,
09:02at least what we heard from the foreign minister, that the supreme leader, as far as he knows, is alive.
09:08Then the spokesperson to the foreign ministry also stressed that the supreme leader and the president survived the attack.
09:17According to sources on the ground I'm talking to, they're saying that the supreme leader is alive.
09:21Now, over here we have two conflicting accounts.
09:26Shall we tell our viewers this is absolutely to be expected in a situation like this?
09:31Like, you absolutely expect in a war like this, one side to say, we, you know, to claim victory,
09:39whatever victory that might be.
09:40In this case, it is the killing, according to Donald Trump, of the Iranian supreme leader,
09:45and the other side to completely deny it.
09:47And usually it takes a few hours, sometimes more, by the way, sometimes days,
09:51for the dust to settle and for us to get certainty.
09:54This is normal, I mean.
09:55Absolutely, absolutely.
09:56That's why we cannot come out with a conclusion.
09:59What we can is just to report what Trump is saying and what Netanyahu is saying on one side,
10:04and on the other side, they're denying it.
10:06And as somebody who covers Iran, you have many times been in the position
10:10where there has been a source or there has been information that Ali Khamenei had been killed
10:15and you, you know, the question was put to you, and you'd had to exercise caution.
10:19On several occasions, there were reports of Khamenei being dead.
10:23But also, on other occasions, now, this is not the occasion of a leader being killed.
10:29For example, when Qasem Soleimani was killed, just like...
10:32Former head of the ARGC.
10:33Former head of the Quds Force.
10:35Of the Quds Force.
10:35And a very influential commander in Iran.
10:38In just like a couple of hours, he was announced dead.
10:41Now, in 2024, when the president's plane crashed, the helicopter, May 2024, along with the foreign minister,
10:49it took them some time to announce.
10:51But we were all in the situation to understand that there is something happening
10:57because the plane crashed and there's no news.
11:00Well, now, what they are saying till the moment is that he is safe.
11:04Denial.
11:05Strong denial from the Iranians.
11:06Now, is this because we are in the middle of a war and the Iranian government or the system wants
11:13to preserve the morale and all these things?
11:15This is another thing.
11:16I want to go straight to the Iranian capital, see what we can find out from there.
11:19Al Jazeera's Tawheed Asadi is in Tehran.
11:21Tawheed, on your end, what are you hearing?
11:25Well, on my end, what I'm hearing from different sources is quite contradictory to this very recent strong statement
11:33by the U.S. President Donald Trump, who came out with a significant amount of certainty
11:40about the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Abdullah Ali Khamenei.
11:44First, it was the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Rahgi, coming out to say that, quote-unquote,
11:51as far as he knows, the Iranian Supreme Leader, as well as the president,
11:57as well as the secretary for the National Security Council of the country, Ali Larejani,
12:02and the speaker of the parliament are all alive.
12:05This is what we heard earlier from him.
12:08Also, we've got the head of public relations of Supreme Leader's office saying that,
12:13following these reports, saying that these are sort of psychological warfare from the enemy.
12:21And also, Iranian official news agencies, such as Tasneem and Mehr News,
12:27are all saying that Iranian Supreme Leader is firm and steadfast, commanding the battlefield.
12:34These are the reports.
12:35But added to that is that earlier today, or now I should say yesterday,
12:42we witnessed the Postor neighborhood being targeted several times by this campaign of strikes
12:49by the Americans and Israelis.
12:51And for our viewers, this is the neighborhood that key important, actually, facilities,
12:59and, of course, places, politically speaking, are located, such as the office of the Supreme Leader,
13:06as well as the office of Iranian president, as well as two important military universities.
13:12And these are critically important, seeing the very recent reports that are coming.
13:18And, of course, speaking of the official statements, I can say denial is the gist of the matter
13:25when it comes to these reports, but previously, back in June,
13:29when we had a sort of similar situation following the initiation of the first day of the attacks,
13:36we've got very immediate reactions, very immediate confirmations
13:41about the deaths of very, very important figures.
13:45I think it's a very important thing.
13:45I think it's a very important thing.
13:45I think it's a very important thing.
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