Iran’s Ghalibaf reveals details from the first hours after Khamenei’s killing

Iran’s parliament speaker and top negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has told his accounts of the immediate events behind the scenes following the death of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei on Feb. 28, Al Arabiya reported.

According to him, those in charge of the country knew about the strike on Khamenei’s residence an hour after it had taken place.

“Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s death was confirmed an hour after the bombing,” Ghalibaf said during a meeting with the Coordination Council of the Iranian Shura Council.

“We decided to coordinate the announcement of the news at dawn and the call to the masses to take to the streets with Ali Larijani,” he said according to the official Iranian news agency IRNA.

Ghalibaf added that by the time the heads of all three authorities in question and Larijani arrived, it was already 8pm, so they decided to announce Khamenei’s death the next morning and “quickly dispersed.”

However, as “foreign media” had already reported Khamenei’s death, he contacted Larijani late at night to coordinate his efforts with him.

“We realized that proceeding with the previous plan was no longer possible, so Ali Larijani and I made the decision to announce the news at dawn and call on the people to take to the streets,” he said adding that had they not made that decision “the situation on the street would have taken a different path.”

Israel and the US began launching strikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Ali Khamenei was killed in one of those strikes the very same day, followed by many other high-ranking leaders and commanders in Iran who also died in strikes.

He was succeeded by his son Mojtaba Khamenei who, until now, has remained hidden from the public eye and whose statements to the public have been read out on TV by presenters on his behalf.