Chinese leader Xi Jinping and the late Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei. Images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons. On February 28, 2026, Supreme Leader Khamenei was killed in a joint U.S.-Israeli airstrike in Tehran, with CIA intelligence reportedly used to locate senior leaders. A three-person leadership council, including President Pezeshkian, the judiciary chief, and a senior cleric, has been formed to hold power until a successor is named. Iranian retaliatory strikes continue to hit U.S. assets across the Gulf region. The regime, however, is not eliminated. As the Council on Foreign Relations noted, taking out Khamenei is not the same…