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What to know about Iran's Khamenei, killed after nearly 40-year reign · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: The son of the former Shah Rezapa Lavi, noted the
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  Speaker 1: death of Iran supreme leader tonight by calling him quote
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  Speaker 1: the bloodthirsty despot of our time. CBS News senior foreign
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  Speaker 1: correspondent Elizabeth Palmer has covered the regime of the Iatola
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  Speaker 1: for many years now, and she joins us now from London.
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  Speaker 2: Said Ali Hosseini Kamenei was the most powerful man in Iran,
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  Speaker 2: with ultimate control over everything from foreign policy to the
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  Speaker 2: fearsome revolutionary guards. Even after surgery for prostate cancer in
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  Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, Iran's Supreme leader had a single mission, protecting
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  Speaker 2: the Islamic Republic from internal threats, even if that meant
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  Speaker 2: killing dissidents and external ones. First and foremost America and
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  Speaker 2: its ally Israel. Born the son of a cleric in Mashad,
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  Speaker 2: Kamenei joined the Islamic Revolution in nineteen seven seventy nine
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  Speaker 2: as an advisor to its spiritual head, Iatola Komene. Kamenae
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  Speaker 2: served as both defense minister and president, and when the
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  Speaker 2: old Iotola died, an assembly of Mullas chose him as
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  Speaker 2: the successor. His mistrust of America was anchored in the
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  Speaker 2: CIA's role in overthrowing Iran's government in the nineteen fifties.
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  Speaker 2: It grew when revolutionary students took sixty six Americans hostage
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  Speaker 2: in their own embassy in nineteen eighty, and the US
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  Speaker 2: reacted with fury and sanctions. Fast forward to twenty fifteen,
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  Speaker 2: Kamenae opposed the short lived nuclear deal with America. In
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  Speaker 2: latter years, internal protests gathered force against Iran's government and,
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  Speaker 2: once unthinkable, the Supreme Leader himself, But he stood firm,
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  Speaker 2: an unflinching overlord of revolutionary ideals that had begun to
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  Speaker 2: look out of step with a modernizing Iran. Elizabeth Palmer
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  Speaker 2: CBS News London.
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  Speaker 1: CBS News Middle East reporter Courtney Kiely spent more than
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  Speaker 1: fifteen years reporting from cities across the region. There, Courtney,
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  Speaker 1: Now that the IOLA is no longer with us, according
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  Speaker 1: to President Trump, what comes next? Is there a clear successor?
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  Speaker 3: Well, they're supposed to be according to the Iranian Constitution,
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  Speaker 3: Article one point one one, there are supposed to be
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  Speaker 3: three people in charge right now, the head of the
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  Speaker 3: President who is still alive, and an important cleric whoever
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  Speaker 3: that may be, a name unknown, and somebody from the
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  Speaker 3: defense forces and the judiciary. Now there have been a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people killed. Not jess Hamioni. I'm looking at
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  Speaker 3: Ali lar Jehani, who's probably the most veteran of this regime,
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  Speaker 3: who's not a cleric. After they go to this three
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  Speaker 3: person that's taking over, then they go to the assembly
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  Speaker 3: of experts about eighty eight religious clerics are supposed to
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  Speaker 3: then designate who the leader is. But don't forget the
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  Speaker 3: decapitation strikes that happen in June. They hid the Iranian
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  Speaker 3: Revolutionary Guard head then and they just named a new
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  Speaker 3: one and then they hit him again, Ali Chamcani, who
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  Speaker 3: was also head of the Defense Council, he was killed.
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  Speaker 3: So there's a level of successorship that runs down the
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  Speaker 3: defense that's gone.
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  Speaker 1: But Accordingy, what you're describing is a successorship that is
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  Speaker 1: still a theocracy, still essentially the regime. It's not freedom
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  Speaker 1: at hand, as the president's talking about. So is there
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  Speaker 1: a journey from there to there? Or are we just
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  Speaker 1: back to where we were with a theocracy that's going
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  Speaker 1: to pursue a nuclear weapon?
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  Speaker 3: Right, and we have to wait and see because do
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  Speaker 3: they have the power. Is the Irunan Revolutionary Guard still intact? Fact,
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  Speaker 3: is it splintering? Well, the besieged fight. Will the army
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  Speaker 3: continue to fight? They've just lost another head of it
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  Speaker 3: is Ali Larjani in hiding. Is there anyone that can
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  Speaker 3: keep this intact? And that's what also these air strikes
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  Speaker 3: and this war have been trying to do, is eight
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  Speaker 3: these chasms within all of the levels of the running
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  Speaker 3: revolutionary Guard. Most of the top leadership was killed in June.
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  Speaker 3: Then they became successors. But a lot of those people
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  Speaker 3: might not have the fight because they're not the ones
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  Speaker 3: that made billions off the back of the ordinary people.
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  Speaker 1: There are lawmakers here in the US, and there's reporting
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  Speaker 1: from military officials suggesting this is not going to be
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  Speaker 1: just days of fighting. It could be weeks of strikes.
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  Speaker 1: What are you hearing? And I mean, there's never been
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  Speaker 1: really successful regime change without boots on the ground, right.
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  Speaker 3: And I really wonder where the messade is right now?
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  Speaker 1: Well, that's a good question.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And we knew they were on the ground in Iran,
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  Speaker 3: and they infiltrated the truckers and they hit places and
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  Speaker 3: buildings in June from the ground. Now what I'm also
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  Speaker 3: looking at is the arsenal of ballistic missiles. They have
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  Speaker 3: to come up above ground and use the launchers to
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  Speaker 3: fire it. Israel took those launchers out in Iran, not
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  Speaker 3: all of them, maybe fifty percent. I did talk to
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  Speaker 3: an expert in ballistic missiles. He said, look at the
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  Speaker 3: show and medium range and where they're hitting. Now we
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  Speaker 3: have seen some hit soft targets, but we're not seeing
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  Speaker 3: a lot going yet. In the next coming days, we
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  Speaker 3: have to watch will they retaliate, will this regime stay intact,
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  Speaker 3: and will they retaliate like how many threaten to do in.
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  Speaker 1: Our closing moments here the Iranian people, what are you
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  Speaker 1: hearing from them tonight? We know they're celebrating. What's the feeling.
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  Speaker 3: It's an incredible dissonance that they had to choose war
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  Speaker 3: over a regime, but they were willing to do it.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you, Donald Trump, Thank you Benjamin Netya who, Thank
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  Speaker 3: you America. It's not death to America after they killed
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  Speaker 3: the leader. The Americans and the Israelis did it. It's
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  Speaker 3: not death to Israel and death to America. It's thank you.
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  Speaker 3: It's a new day dawning, but very early days, very
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  Speaker 3: very early days, so we'll have to see what comes.
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  Speaker 3: But it's the Iranian people that have been telling me
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  Speaker 3: over and over and over again. We want this. We're
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  Speaker 3: not regimists, we're not Islamic. I don't even say oh
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  Speaker 3: my God to my Iranian friends because they don't want
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  Speaker 3: God to any.
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  Speaker 2: Part of this.
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  Speaker 3: Wow.
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  Speaker 1: Courting a Keely fifteen years reporting on the Middle East
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  Speaker 1: joining us tonight for some reporting and analysis. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: very much, really appreciate it.