Iran after the Ayatollah
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 3 March 2026
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
After weeks of protests against Ayatollah Khamenei’s regime earlier this year, the Iranian people cried out for American help as they were massacred in their thousands. Over the weekend, the Americans and Israelis did finally intervene in Iran, killing the Ayatollah, but leaving a flood of questions in their wake. Who will now fill the political vacuum? Will there be regime change? And what next for the Iranian people?
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Guests:
- Rana Rahimpour, Iranian journalist.
- Ali Ansari, professor of Iranian history, the University of St. Andrews.
Host: Rosie Wright.
Producers: Harry Stott, Julia Webster.
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Read more: Who will replace Ayatollah Khamenei — a moderate or an ‘Iranian Putin’?
Further listening: Iran's supreme leader killed - is the Middle East in all out war?
Clips: BBC, AP, EuroNews, State Department / Instagram, 60 Minutes.
Photo: Getty Images, The Times, Dana Chan.
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Transcript
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| 0:31.4 | description of this episode. Thank you. |
| 0:35.9 | From The Times and the Sunday times, this is The Story. |
| 0:40.0 | I'm Rosie Wright. |
| 0:44.8 | It feels like your house is on fire and you're dying in it. |
| 0:49.8 | You accept any help. |
| 0:52.0 | Because no matter what, you are going to die. |
| 0:58.0 | Yeah. accept any help? Because no matter what, you are going to die. In January, people in every single province of Iran were shouting for help, |
| 1:03.8 | demonstrating against the regime in what was the bloodiest uprising in a generation. |
| 1:17.6 | Yeah. arduous uprising in a generation. The US president said help was on the way, but it didn't come in January. |
| 1:21.6 | A Over the weekend, U.S. Israeli strikes were unleashed across Iran, |
| 1:36.3 | killing Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, in the process. |
| 1:40.7 | Iranians took to the streets again. |
| 1:43.2 | Now, in some quarters, they were gathering to mourn. |
| 1:46.7 | Yolson! |
| 1:48.8 | Yolson! |
| 1:52.8 | And in others, they're celebrating. |
... |
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