A “Black Spot” for the West: The World on the Brink of Global Shia Jihad After the Killing of Khamenei

The assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the U.S.-Israeli operation “Epic Fury” has become the point of no return.

A Fatwa Over the Abyss: Jihad as a Religious Duty

What analysts had feared for so long happened within the very first week of the conflict. The death of the supreme leader became the trigger for a process capable of redrawing the map of the world. The most authoritative Shia theologians — Ayatollah Makarem Shirazi, Ayatollah Hossein Nouri Hamedani, and Ayatollah Kamal al-Haydari — have issued fatwas placing the responsibility for the death of the “martyr” on Washington and Tel Aviv.

These are not just political statements. In the Shia doctrine of “Wilayat al-Faqih,” the supreme leader is not just a politician but the spiritual guide of the Ummah. As Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem emphasized shortly before the escalation, any harm done to Khamenei “would lead to the destabilization of the world.” Today, we are witnessing this scenario unfold in real-time.

Experts are unanimous: the declaration of jihad moves the conflict to a different plane. This is no longer just a war between states. A holy war is being declared under the banner of the Prophet Muhammad. It’s one thing to fight against a state; it’s another thing entirely to fight against all Shia in the world.

However, the rapid escalation, spurred on by the Trump and Netanyahu team, has revealed not so much the strength of their strategy but a fatal miscalculation in assessing the consequences. By acting with a “maximum pressure” approach and betting exclusively on a military solution, they painted the situation into a corner where the only outcome was all-out war. This shortsightedness has already led to numerous casualties and brought the region to the brink of total chaos. As analysts note, the U.S. got involved in a conflict without a clear plan for stabilizing Iran after a regime change, threatening a repeat of the Libya or Syria scenario, but on a much larger scale. Instead of the........

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