Some Iranians responded to the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei with open celebration, but many others expressed fear over what comes next as strikes by the United States and Israel continued for a second day Sunday. In streets and residential neighborhoods, some residents described jubilant scenes—people dancing and cars honking—while state media urged mourning, including in videos verified by The Associated Press showing tens of thousands filling major squares.
One man in northern Tehran who told AP he was celebrating said internally “we are in party mode,” but he added that people were not celebrating publicly because they feared the response from authorities. “But unless we are safe from them, people are not celebrating publicly because they are ruthless and even more vengeful,” he said in a message shared with AP via messaging apps.
As the country’s leadership also moved quickly to project stability, the AP reported that authorities rallied massive crowds in several cities to mourn Khamenei, whom state media declared a martyr. In videos broadcast by Iranian state media and verified by AP, the crowds waved Iranian flags and chanted “Death to America,” including during events in Isfahan and Yazd.
At the same time, some residents who spoke to AP after the first day of the U.S.-Israeli campaign said security forces—along with the memory of last month’s crackdown—made it harder to imagine a new round of mass demonstrations. With communications into Iran unstable, AP contacted eight Iranians, including people who asked for anonymity for security reasons. Golshan Fathi, a woman living in Tehran, said the Basij paramilitary was showing a heavy presence in the capital, and a doctor in Rasht said Basij members pulled one man out of his car after he honked his horn in celebration.
Fathi said Iranian society was “between hope and fear,” a sentiment echoed by others who described uncertainty over whether the leadership and military structure will bend or harden under the pressure of the strikes. The AP described Iran as deeply divided, citing that hundreds of thousands marched across Iran last month chanting “Death to Khamenei” in what were described as among the biggest protests against the clerics’ rule since 1979, and that a crackdown crushed the movement while leaving bitterness in place.
Iran’s government sought to underscore continuity after the deaths of Khamenei, the defense minister, the army chief of staff and a top security adviser. President Masoud Pezeshkian said a new leadership council had begun its work, and the foreign minister said a new supreme leader would be chosen in “one or two days,” according to the AP. Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf said on state TV that the government and military did not depend on individuals, adding that the leadership had prepared for “all scenarios,” including “after the martyrdom of our dear Imam Khamenei.”
As Iranians also grappled with the daily reality of bombardment, AP reported that Tehran residents rushed to supermarkets and gas stations on Sunday, emptying shelves of items including bottled water, bread, eggs and milk, with long lines suggesting worries about shortages or plans to leave the capital. At the same time, Iranian authorities said more than 200 people were killed in the strikes, including at least 165 killed in a strike at an all-girls school in the country’s south. Iranian officials said missiles were fired at a widening set of targets in Israel and Gulf Arab states, while Israel pledged “non-stop” strikes against Iran’s leaders and military.
Some Iranians said the deaths of senior leaders raised hope for change. Fathi said she feared the Islamic Republic could hold onto power, “leading to chaos or even causing the splitting of the nation,” but she also suggested that “maybe, maybe from this morning, that new page for Iran where everything changes has begun.” Others voiced caution, including a doctor in Rasht who said “I don’t think that the people have their determination in their own hands yet,” describing the conflict as “a foreign war at the end of the day” and adding that the situation could shift if another call for protests emerged.
Experts told AP that demonstrations may still be difficult to launch at scale even if some Iranians feel emboldened. “The reality is, the Iranian people don’t have the means to displace the Islamic Republic on their own,” said Esfandyar Batmanghelidj, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies-Europe. He said strikes could embolden some but also predicted many would remain wary of taking the streets again because “the regime retains its repressive capacity … and there should be no doubts it would be willing to use violence again against protesters,” and he said views could differ “within families and within neighborhoods” given that the conflict involved foreign powers.
Another expert, Arang Keshavarzian of New York University, said that in both last summer’s 12-day war with Israel and the current bombardment, “the political and military apparatus has been hit hard,” but the structure of the leadership has “replaced people and maintained their cohesion.” He said Iran may be far from the 1979 model in which broad segments of society organized strikes and nationwide support involving merchants, students and clerics, adding that even with daily grievances toward the state, it does not necessarily follow that protests will scale into a broader social revolution—“and bombing Iran does not change this.”