Iran…Israel…America…Update…Late 2/28/2026….Celebrations in the Streets of Tehran….

In the hours before the announcement, large crowds of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran and other cities across Iran to celebrate Mr. Trump’s announcement. Others mourned reports of his death online.

It was not immediately clear whether it was American or Israeli strikes that killed the supreme leader, or who was now in charge in Iran.

Mr. Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel had both made clear that regime change was a goal of the huge waves of strikes on Iran that began around 1 a.m. local time on Saturday. “When we are finished, take over your government,” Mr. Trump told the Iranian people in a video statement. “It will be yours to take.”

It is not clear whether removing Ayatollah Khamenei, who was 86, will result in significant changes to the system he led. Many people in authority owed their positions to him, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — a powerful institution that answers to the supreme leader — recently demonstrated its grip on the country by brutally crushing mass protests, killing thousands of people.

His death is a potentially seismic political shift in Tehran that raises the prospect of broader conflict across the region. Iran’s leadership oversees extensive military abilities and a network of regional proxy forces that could help sustain a resistance.

Many world leaders urged restraint after the strike on Saturday, although Canada and Australia backed the American action.

But the bombing continued early Sunday, according to Iranians reporting new rounds of explosions on social media. Mr. Trump warned that U.S. strikes “will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”

The effects of the attacks on Iranian civilians were not immediately clear. HRANA, a Washington-based Iranian rights group, said late Saturday that at least 133 civilians had been killed and that 200 others were injured — figures that could not be independently confirmed. The Iranian state media reported dozens of children were killed at a girl’s elementary school near a naval base. The U.S. and Israeli militaries did not immediately comment.

In retaliation for the attacks, Iran fired waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, where the authorities reported one death. The United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait — all of which host U.S. military bases — said they had come under attack, as did Jordan. Falling debris from an Iranian ballistic missile attack killed at least one person in the Emirates, according to its government.

The fighting effectively shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply, according to shipping companies and Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency. Major airports, including Dubai International in the United Arab Emirates, and a wide corridor of airspace were closed.

Here’s what else to know:

• Celebrations in Tehran: As residents of Iran’s capital celebrated the supreme leader’s death, fireworks lit up the sky and loud Persian dance music filled the streets. But the threat of more attacks by U.S. and Israeli forces cast a pall over the festivities.

• Iranian Succession: The power to choose a new supreme leader rests with the Assembly of Experts, a conservative body of clerics who, given Ayatollah Khamenei’s age and infirmities, have probably given ample thought to potential successors. Read more ›

• Shipping impacts: The closure of the Strait of Hormuz will almost certainly send oil prices upward. The U.S. Maritime Administration advised vessels to avoid the strait, and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said that the passage was unsafe for commercial traffic, Tasnim reported. Read more @ NYTimes

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How Long does the attacks go?

President Trump told Axios on Saturday that he has several “off ramps” from Operation Epic Fury, the extraordinary U.S. military campaign against Iran that he launched early Saturday morning.

What they’re saying: “I can go long and take over the whole thing, or end it in two or three days and tell the Iranians: ‘See you again in a few years if you start rebuilding [your nuclear and missile programs],” Trump said in a five-minute phone interview from Mar-a-Lago.

• “In any case, it will take them several years to recover from this attack,” he predicted.

Why it matters: The comments offer the first real window into Trump’s thinking about how this ends — and suggest he’s still open to a diplomatic solution, even after U.S.-Iran nuclear talks collapsed in Geneva.

• A short operation followed by new ultimatums would be a dramatically different outcome than the regime change that some U.S. and Israeli officials have described as the goal.
• Trump is facing domestic pressure, including from his MAGA base, to avoid a prolonged Middle East intervention.

Driving the news: Trump cited two main reasons for launching the strikes — the first being the failure of negotiations this week led by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.

• “The Iranians got close and then pulled back — close and then pulled back. I understood from that that they don’t really want a deal,” he said.

The second reason was Iran’s conduct over the last several decades.

• Trump said that while writing his speech Friday announcing the attack, he asked his team to compile every Iranian-linked attack around the world over the past 25 years.
• “I saw that every month they did something bad, blew something up or killed someone,” he told Axios.

Between the lines: Trump also claimed that Iran had begun rebuilding some of the nuclear facilities that the U.S. and Israel struck during last June’s 12-Day War. Independent analysts pointed to building activity taking place in some of the nuclear sites, but didn’t conclude that Iran has resumed nuclear activity….

More…

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Saudi’s backed the attacks against Iran….

(No Surprise)