The Sunday(1st March) confirmation follows the initial report of the Tasnim and Mehr news agencies of Iran that Khamenei was still remaining “steadfast and firm” in command of the field.

In an earlier post on his Truth Social platform, US President Donald Trump stated at the start of the day that 86-year-old Khamenei had died in the joint US-Israeli attacks, which had begun early on Saturday.

“He could not escape our Intelligence and Highly Sophisticated Tracking Systems, and in a close collaboration with Israel, there was nothing that he, or the other leaders that have been killed with him, could do,” Trump wrote.

“This,” he said, “was the best opportunity that the Iranian people had to reclaim their Country. With this, hopefully, the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] will integrate with the Iranian Patriots in peace.

Although the assassination of Khamenei is possible since the authorities in Iran had long been planning the assassination of Khamenei in case of war with the US and Israel, the assassination creates new doubts about a conflict that is already gaining momentum and may extend further.

A similar allegation had previously been made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had alleged that there were mounting indications that Khamenei had been assassinated.

Also, the Reuters news agency, with the mention of an unnamed senior Israeli official, had reported that the body of Khamenei had been found.

The supreme leader is the ultimate authority of all the branches of government, namely the military, the judiciary and the spiritual leader of the nation.

In a conversation with Al Jazeera, Barbara Slavin, a renowned fellow at the Stimson Centre, Washington, DC, said that Iran has a plan that is already in place in case the death of Khamenei is confirmed.

“It is likely to have a council that will be established to administer the country. It had probably been operating the country, as far as we know, already,” she said.

Trump sends signals of further strikes

Reports by the Iranian media cited the Red Crescent as stating that at least 201 people were killed by the strikes on Iran on Saturday, which targeted 24 provinces.

During the attacks, Israel had bombed two Iranian schools, killing at least 108 in the Shajareh Tayyebeh elementary school of girls in the southern city of Minab and two more in a school east of the capital, Tehran.

In his speech, Netanyahu remarked that several senior personalities had been killed in a series of attacks against high-ranking leadership, as Trump urged the government to overturn itself.

“Israel,” Netanyahu claimed, “had assassinated commanders of the Revolutionary Guard and high-ranking officials of the nuclear programme. And we will continue.”

The Truth Social post that Trump has made showed that he would continue the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” of Iran throughout the week, or as long as required.

The counterattacks by Iran on Saturday activated the interception of air defences of various nations that host air bases with US assets, such as in Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced on Saturday evening that the third and fourth waves of the so-called retaliatory attacks on US and Israeli targets were in progress, which was acknowledged by a statement of the IRNA news agency.

Guterres requests de-escalation

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an emergency gathering of the Security Council that he was very much sorry that a chance to establish diplomacy had been “wasted.”

He warned the 15-member body that military action has the risk of triggering a chain reaction that can not be checked by anyone in the most volatile part of the world. “I demand a de-escalation and a ceasefire.”

Appealing to the Security Council, the ambassador of Iran to the UN, Amir Saeid Iravani, stated, “the US and Israel have launched an unjustified and premeditated aggression, targeting the civilian populated regions of several large cities in Iran, inhabited by millions of people.”

“It is not only aggression, but also a war crime and a crime against humanity,” he said.

The US United Nations ambassador, Mike Waltz, demonstrated that the military action was legal. “Iran must not be armed with a nuclear weapon,” he said. That principle is not a political issue. It has to do with international security.

The UN ambassador of China, Fu Cong, remarked that Beijing was extremely locked up by the sudden surging of tensions in the region.

The ambassador of Russia, Vassily Nebenzia, denounced the U.S.-Israeli air attacks and insisted that the US and Israel should stop their aggressive activities at once.