US and Israel Bomb Iran, Kill Khamenei. What Comes Next?

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 2 March 2026

⏱️ 54 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The United States and Israel’s strikes against Iran continued throughout the weekend, killing supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei, top officials and civilians. Iran has retaliated with strikes on Israel, Gulf countries and U.S. bases. We talk with experts on Iran about what the attacks mean for the future of the Islamic Republic and the region, and what might happen next. Guests: Robin Wright, contributing writer, New Yorker; her most recent piece for the magazine is "What Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Meant to Iran, and What Comes Next" Wright is also the author of "Dreams and Shadows: The Future of the Middle East" Sahar Razavi, associate professor, Department of Political Science; director, Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center, California State University, Sacramento Nate Swanson, director, Iran Strategy Project at the Atlantic Council Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:39.9	From KQED.
0:42.7	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.
0:46.0	Well, we're in a hot war with Iran. The U.S. has taken out another country's leader.
0:52.7	American power has not been so bald and so free from
0:55.6	restraint in many years. But what happens now? The Iranian response has targeted Israel,
1:01.8	Arab countries, and United States bases. The government there has not collapsed. What's even
1:07.5	going on? We've got three experts here to help us figure things out.
1:12.6	Robin Wright is a contributing writer at The New Yorker.
1:15.4	Her most recent piece for the magazine is Iran's regime is unsustainable.
1:20.8	Welcome, Robin.
1:22.3	Great to be with you.
1:24.1	We also have Sahar Razavi, who's an associate professor in the Department of Political Science
1:29.1	and the director of the Iranian and Middle Eastern Studies Center at Cal State, Sacramento.
1:34.5	Thanks for joining us.
1:36.0	Thanks for having me on.
	...

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