The Killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader and the End of an Era in the Middle East
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What triggered the U.S. and Israel's attack on Iran?
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From The New York Times, I'm Rachel Abrams, and this is a special episode of The Daily. We have breaking news that we're following from overnight. The U.S. and Israel have launched a wide-scale assault on Iran.
Breaking news this hour. Smoke can be seen coming from buildings in Tehran, and people have reportedly been running away in panic there.
This weekend, the United States and Israel have launched a massive attack against Iran, killing the supreme leader and, according to Iranian state media, several people in the country's leadership structure. This is very big news. These strikes are now officially decapitation strikes. The strikes were the most aggressive military action that the U.S. has taken against Iran in generations, aimed at toppling a regime that president after president has deemed an enemy of the United States. A missile fragment falling to the ground and exploding in Doha, the capital of Qatar. But the attack has already prompted retaliation across the region, as well as fears about a wider conflict that could reshape the Middle East.
You can hear the sirens are going off right now, and this is indicating essentially that there is a barrage of missiles coming towards Israel.
U.S. embassies across the region are now telling Americans to shelter in place. And just in, the State Department is now urging all U.S. citizens in Lebanon to get out while commercial options are still available.
Today, my colleagues Mark Mazzetti and David Sanger explain what's next for Iran and what these strikes threaten to unleash. It's Sunday, March 1st.
David, Mark, welcome to the show.
Thank you. Good to be back, Rachel.
So in my lifetime, there have been many false alarms about a full-fledged U.S. war with Iran, where it seemed like we were close, but obviously it did not happen.
This moment feels very different, though, and I think that that's in large part because the United States has killed Iran's supreme leader, as well as a number of top officials in the regime. And just the scale of that alone, as well as the scale of the retaliation we've seen in the region just in the last basically less than 24 hours, it far surpasses any kind of military operation we have seen in Iran since the Iranian revolution in 1979. So I think that a basic question on a lot of people's minds right now is, are we at war with Iran? And David, let's start with you.
It certainly feels like that, Rachel. After all, the United States, for the first time, hit at the core of Tehran, the leadership compounds, and the Iranians have responded by missile attacks on many of the U.S. allies and on U.S. bases. If that doesn't define a war, even one that may only last a few days, I don't know what does. That's right, David.
This is a full-blown war by the United States and Israel against Iran. Last summer when the Israelis began a conflict, there were clear lines that they didn't want to cross. They didn't want to kill the supreme leader or topple the regime. And the ambitions in this conflict are extraordinary. President Trump said he is trying to basically knock off the leadership of the country and let the country of Iran figure out what goes on from there. This has never happened before. OK, so clearly we are at an unprecedented moment. Talk about how we ended up here.
Well, this phase of it started with the protests last January. And you remember that there were hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iranians who were on the streets. Right. And thousands, if not tens of thousands, who were killed.
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