A second day of explosions shook central Tehran on Sunday as the Israeli military confirmed it was striking new targets in the Iranian capital, less than 24 hours after a joint US-Israel operation killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and plunged the Islamic Republic into the most profound leadership crisis of its 46-year history.
Iranian state media confirmed the 86-year-old's death early Sunday, according to 7News. US President Donald Trump had announced it hours earlier on Truth Social, writing that Khamenei's killing gave Iranians their "greatest chance" to "take back the country." Khamenei was killed while at work: Iranian state news agency IRIB reported that "the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution of Iran was martyred at his workplace in the Beit Rahbari," adding that "he was carrying out his assigned duties and present at his place of work at the moment of martyrdom."
The operation opened a stunning new chapter in US intervention in Iran, marking the second time in eight months that the Trump administration had attacked the country during negotiations over its nuclear programme. The joint operation, which officials say was planned for months, took place during the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan and at the start of the Iranian work week.
Israel said it killed the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and the country's defence minister. The Israeli military also said its strikes killed the secretary of the Iranian Security Council, a close adviser to Khamenei. CBS News, citing sources, reported the initial strikes were believed to have killed around 40 Iranian officials in total.
Saturday's strikes targeted 24 provinces, killing at least 201 people according to Iranian media citing the Red Crescent. Among the attacks, Israel struck two schools in Iran, killing at least 108 people at the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls' elementary school in the southern city of Minab, and two others at a school east of the capital, Tehran.
Iran's Succession Race
Iran is moving quickly to close the leadership vacuum. Ali Larijani, who has served as secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council since August 2025, convened a critical leadership meeting on Sunday to begin the process of appointing a new supreme leader. The New York Times had reported earlier this month that Khamenei put in place detailed plans for his succession and emergency chains of command should he or other top leaders be killed, elevating longtime loyalist Larijani to manage the crisis.
According to the New York Times, Larijani had effectively been running Iran since January 2026 and was in "charge of crushing, with lethal force, the recent protests demanding the end of Islamic rule." He is considered a pragmatic conservative who acknowledged the need to adapt the Islamic Republic's revolutionary ideology to prevailing conditions and contemporary realities. Khamenei's son, aged 56, has also emerged as a potential successor after surviving the strike that killed several family members, including the Ayatollah's daughter and her child, as well as his daughter-in-law and son-in-law, according to 7News.
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 — making the vacancy without modern precedent in the Islamic Republic. It remains unclear who will replace him to lead a now weakened and vulnerable Iran.
Iran Fires Back
The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps pledged revenge and said it had launched attacks on 27 bases hosting US troops in the Middle East, as well as Israeli military facilities in Tel Aviv. Fresh blasts were heard across the Gulf cities of Dubai, Doha and Manama on Sunday morning, with AFP reporters confirming explosions in the UAE, Qatar, and Bahrain, where sirens were activated. Military bases and infrastructure, including airports, were hit across the Gulf, with the exception of mediator Oman.
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his condolences, calling the killing of Khamenei and family members a "cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law," according to 7News. Russian opposition sits in sharp contrast to the response from Washington, where Trump warned Iran against retaliating strongly, saying the US would respond "with a force that has never been seen before."
Canberra's Position
Australia's response was notably firm. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told reporters that Khamenei "will not be mourned," stating the former leader "was responsible for orchestrating attacks on Australian soil," as reported by 9News. Australia had formally designated Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism following an ASIO assessment that the IRGC orchestrated two antisemitic attacks against Australia's Jewish community in 2024, including an arson attack on Lewis' Continental Kitchen in Sydney and a firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne.
The subsequent expulsion of Iran's ambassador was the first time Australia had expelled an ambassador since World War II. Albanese said he supported the United States "acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security," according to 9News, though he did not directly reference the strikes in his initial statement.
Opposition leader Angus Taylor described Iran's regime as "authoritarian, antisemitic and abhorrent," pointing to its support for Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and weapons supplied to Russia for use in Ukraine, according to 9News.
A Region on Edge
The shockwaves spread well beyond Iran's borders on Sunday. In Karachi, Pakistan, at least nine people were killed and around 25 wounded in violent clashes after hundreds of protesters stormed the US Consulate in the city's port district, with some wounded left in critical condition. In Baghdad, Iraqi security forces tightened security around the Green Zone over concerns of demonstrations near the US Embassy.
Pope Leo XIV used his Sunday address to call for restraint, saying stability and peace "are not built through mutual threats or through weapons ... but only through reasonable, genuine, and responsible dialogue," as quoted by 7News.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that he deeply regretted that an opportunity for diplomacy had been "squandered." The strikes could rattle global markets, particularly if Iran makes the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for commercial traffic. A third of worldwide oil exports transported by sea passed through the strait in 2025.
There are legitimate arguments on multiple sides of this conflict. Critics of the US-Israel operation point to the civilian death toll, the strikes on schools, and the absence of congressional authorisation for the US action, with most Democrats questioning its constitutionality, according to CBS News. UN officials and analysts warn that removing a head of state by force, regardless of that leader's record, sets a precedent that carries long-term risks for international order.
Those arguments deserve serious consideration. At the same time, the factual record of the Khamenei regime — its financing of proxy militias, its nuclear programme developed in defiance of international agreements, its role in attacks on Australian soil, and its violent suppression of domestic dissent that claimed thousands of Iranian lives — provides the context in which Western governments chose to act. Iran killed thousands of its citizens under Khamenei's rule. The strategic calculation that a nuclear-armed theocratic regime posed a greater long-term danger than the instability of its removal is not unreasonable, even if many will dispute it.
What is clear is that the days and weeks ahead carry extreme risk. Iran retains a formidable ballistic missile programme. Its remaining military commanders have vowed revenge. The absence of a confirmed successor, combined with active combat operations across the region, makes this one of the most volatile moments in the Middle East since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. For Australian citizens still in the region, the government's advice is unambiguous: leave now.