What next for Iran?
The Global Story
BBC
3.8 • 668 Ratings
🗓️ 2 March 2026
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This weekend, Iranian state media confirmed that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled Iran with an iron fist for more than 30 years, had been killed in joint US-Israeli strikes. In Iran, his death was met with an outpouring of grief by his supporters, while many across the country and in the diaspora met the news with jubilation and a tentative sense of hope. But what happens now?
President Trump has urged Iranians to “seize control of your destiny, and to unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach,” but how realistic are the prospects of them forming a new – and significantly different - government? And how will the weakened regime retaliate against the US and Israel’s strikes?
Caroline Hawley, Diplomatic Correspondent for the BBC, joins us to discuss.
Producers: Hannah Moore, Aron Keller and Chris Benderev
Executive producer: Bridget Harney
Mix: Travis Evans
Senior news editor: China Collins
Photo: A woman holds an image of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, Iran. Credit: Majid Asgaripour/WANA via Reuters.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | There's been a third consecutive night of U.S. and Israeli air strikes on Iran. |
| 0:11.3 | We have hit hundreds of targets in Iran, including revolutionary guard facilities, Iranian air defense systems. |
| 0:20.4 | On Sunday afternoon, President Trump gave a video update in which he tried to project |
| 0:24.5 | strength. |
| 0:25.6 | They are the world's number one state sponsor of terror. |
| 0:29.7 | We are the world's greatest and most powerful nation so we can do something about what they do. |
| 0:37.2 | Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead, along with dozens of top Iranian leaders. |
| 0:43.2 | There are casualties across the region, including reportedly at a synagogue in Israel, |
| 0:48.8 | at a school in Iran and among U.S. service people. |
| 0:52.9 | From the BBC, I'm Tristan Redmond in Paris. |
| 0:55.8 | And I'm Asma Khalid in Washington, D.C. |
| 0:58.5 | And today on the global story, |
| 1:01.0 | after 36 years, Iran's supreme leader is gone. |
| 1:04.9 | A complex military operation is underway. |
| 1:07.6 | But what happens next? |
| 1:14.8 | Thank you. is underway, but what happens next? Tristan, you and I are talking on Sunday. |
| 1:18.0 | It has been a whirlwind weekend. |
| 1:21.0 | And so I think in order to understand what happens next in Iran, |
| 1:24.4 | it is worth just pausing and understanding how this story unfolded. |
| 1:30.2 | It was the wee hours in the middle of the night, Saturday, 2.30 a.m. Eastern time when President |
| 1:36.7 | Trump posted this video online. A short time ago, the United States military began major combat operations in Iran. |
| 1:48.6 | We heard Trump refer to the fact that American casualties may take place. |
... |
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