The entrance pages carry photos of fiery explosions as – in accordance with the Sunday Express – “chaos erupted” across the Middle East, external. The world is holding its breath, the paper says, after what it describes as “devastation” in the area. “Middle East in flames”, external is the headline in the Sunday Mirror, whereas the Sun on Sunday opts for simply, external: “Ayatollah dead”. It says that following a “missile blitz” by the US and Israel the Iranian chief’s physique was discovered in rubble at his palace in Tehran.
According to the Sunday Telegraph, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s dying “represents the gravest blow to the Iranian regime” since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, external. In feedback highlighted by the Sunday Times, US President Donald Trump says it marks “the single greatest chance” for the regime to be overthrown, external, urging the Iranian individuals to “take back their country”. One pupil in the town of Isfahan tells the paper that the federal government is extra afraid of protesters than the US or Israel.
But the Observer describes the strikes as “a war begun with no plan for peace” by a “dangerously reckless” president, external. Politico suggests the killing of the Ayatollah leaves a “power vacuum” which “plunges Iran’s future into uncertainty, external“. The web site says that the armed forces “could use the opportunity to take more power”, which might imply Iranians “could continue to face repression”.
The London-based Iran International – which the regime has classed as a terrorist organisation – says the strikes have intensified “disarray and confusion” within the country’s military, external. Sources inform the outlet that the Revolutionary Guard Corps is insisting on the “swift appointment” of the following supreme chief, outdoors the traditional procedures.
As for Trump’s view of Iran’s future, he has spoken to the American information web site, Axios – feedback it says “offer the first real window into his thinking about how this ends”, external. He tells the outlet that he can “go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days”, and inform the Iranians that in the event that they rebuild their nuclear programme he’ll “see them in a few years”. He additionally says that one among his causes for launching Operation Epic Fury was his perception that Tehran “didn’t really want” to agree a deal over the programme.
The Telegraph, nonetheless, speculates that Trump could have had one other motive for the strikes – saying their timing is “no coincidence”. It reports, external that at a time when his approval scores are at their lowest he “hopes a decisive blow against a foreign aggressor will allow the Republicans to cling to power” in the forthcoming midterms. The Times points out, external that he “came into power promising to end US entanglement in forever wars”. It describes the strikes as his “most daring act yet”, however provides that “they must succeed”.
