Overnight, both Donald Trump and Iranian officials confirmed what had been rumoured for hours: Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is dead. The build-up to this moment had been coming for weeks, but it became clear over the last few days that the second American-Israeli military campaign against the Islamic Republic of Iran was imminent. Though Trump’s administration was still negotiating with the mullahs over Tehran’s nuclear weapons programme, the President was losing patience. While American officials will have realised that wholesale regime change was hardly guaranteed, the time to strike seemed perfect.

What was unusual about the operation was that it began in broad daylight. Administration officials soon solved the mystery, telling the press that a “target of opportunity” had presented itself, causing them to “accelerate the timeline”. The target turned out to be a meeting of the most senior leaders of the Iranian theocracy, including Khamenei himself. This was made possible by Israel’s infiltration of the Iranian regime. Mossad, for many years, had operatives at high levels of the Iranian government. Yesterday, after the strike had taken place, an Israeli spy was able to show a picture of Khamenei’s body to Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Khamenei’s death overshadows even the 2024 killing of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, as a watershed moment in the region. There had only ever been one other Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the ideology and structures of the Islamic Republic. But he only held the post for 10 years, spending much of that time in revolutionary faction fights and a war with Saddam Hussein. Khamenei has ruled for 37 years — the same time period as the last Shah. He consolidated absolute clerical rule and oversaw a vast imperial expansion into the Arab world and beyond.

Now Khamenei is gone, and with him Mohammad Pakpour, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The signs of hesitancy that Trump was displaying two weeks ago have been dispelled. While the US President avoided saying regime change was the American mission, he called on the IRGC to lay down its weapons and told the Iranian people that “the hour of your freedom is at hand.” Trump is clearly encouraging them to take advantage of the conflict to seize power from the mullahs. The exiled Crown Prince Reza, who has shown some ability to influence events inside Iran, echoed this message.

It will not be easy to see the end of such a sophisticated Islamist system. Entrenched for nearly 50 years, tens of thousands of men believe protecting this regime is a God-given duty. They testified to their faith by killing thousands of Iranians in January. However, we are now in uncharted territory. The US-Israeli operation took out much of Iran’s high command on its first day, and will likely continue through the IRGC as well as its hardware and infrastructure. There has never been a moment since 1979 when the Islamic Republic has been so under threat.