President Donald Trump confirmed on Saturday that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran and the country’s highest political and religious authority, was killed during Israeli and U.S. strikes in the country.

“Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead. This is not only Justice for the people of Iran, but for all Great Americans, and those people from many Countries throughout the World, that have been killed or mutilated by Khamenei and his gang of bloodthirsty THUGS,” Trump wrote. 

Israeli media reported he was killed in an Israeli strike on his compound in Tehran. He was 86.

Khamenei had led Iran since 1989, succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who took over the country as part of his Islamic Revolution in 1979. Over more than three decades in power, he oversaw major shifts in Iran’s domestic politics, military posture and regional strategy, moves that resulted in the Islamic Republic becoming the world’s leading exporter of terrorism through proxies such as Hamas and Hezbollah.

As supreme leader, Khamenei exercised ultimate authority over the armed forces, judiciary, state broadcasting and key political appointments. He maintained final say over defense and foreign policy, including Iran’s nuclear program, and appointed top commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. 

The IRGC became the primary instrument of Khamenei’s rule. He cultivated and empowered it for decades, and the IRGC in turn underwrote his domestic authority and Iran’s regional ambitions across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and Gaza through what he called the “Axis of Resistance.”

His foreign policy was defined by two poles of opposition: the United States, which he called Iran’s “No. 1 enemy,” and Israel, whose destruction he repeatedly called for in rhetoric that mixed geopolitical calculation with antisemitic tropes. Under his leadership, Iran became what the U.S. State Department designated the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism.

No successor has been publicly named, and with much of the IRGC’s senior leadership also reported killed in Saturday’s strikes, the question of who fills the vacuum left by Khamenei will mark a pivotal moment in Iran’s history.

A new report released by the Anti-Defamation League on Tuesday highlights an acceleration over the past two years in antisemitic and anti-Israel rhetoric by HispanTV, Iran’s Spanish-language state-sponsored media outlet that primarily targets Latin America.

“The Iranian regime’s media outlet is spreading classic antisemitic conspiracy theories and anti-Israel propaganda to potentially millions of people across Latin America and beyond, making the Islamic Republic a destabilizing force not only in the Middle East, but across the Spanish-speaking world,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in a statement. “With antisemitism already at historic levels globally, Tehran is funding a massive media propaganda operation that is priming the pump for spreading antisemitism and hate against Israel and Jews the world over.”

The report urges governments to probe ties between HispanTV and sanctioned Iranian officials and government entities and consider designating the media outlet as a foreign influence operation. It also urges social media companies to take moderation action against or take down HispanTV’s pages, satellite companies to reconsider broadcasting the channel’s content and internet hosting companies to cease providing services to the outlet.

The report was released in conjunction with an ADL-sponsored event on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference focused on Iran’s malign activities in Latin America.

According to the report, HispanTV’s content features a consistent narrative including antisemitic tropes about Jewish and Zionist influence, portrays Israel as the center of a global conspiracy, expresses support for violent extremist groups and the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel, praises the Iranian regime in comparison to Western democracies and denies Israel’s right to exist.

“The failure of governments, international organizations, corporations, and others to take meaningful action against HispanTV has allowed the Iranian regime to export its hateful and violent conspiracies around the world,” the report states. “If this threat is not seriously addressed, the result will likely be the radicalization of Spanish-speaking audiences across Latin America and beyond.”

The report charges that “one of the most pervasive themes in HispanTV’s coverage” is an antisemitic depiction of Jews and Zionism as “an omnipresent, evil force” controlling governments as part of an interconnected malign plot.

The glorification of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad is also a “central narrative thread” in the coverage, positioning the terrorist groups as righteous, moral and necessary alternatives to the evils of Zionism, and lauds their alleged victories. The outlet covers Hezbollah and the Houthis in a similar light.

“HispanTV consistently frames Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attacks as legitimate and praiseworthy acts of resistance worthy of celebration. This reframing is essential to the channel’s ideological project, converting mass violence into a foundational myth of liberation,” the report adds.

The outlet has downplayed or ignored high-profile antisemitic attacks targeting the Jewish community globally, according to the report. It also portrays Jews and Israelis as “operating a highly organized global disinformation apparatus designed to deceive the world and justify genocide,” downplaying or dismissing the idea of antisemitism entirely.