Sky News Australia host Rita Panahi delivered a blunt on-air reaction Saturday following confirmation that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had been killed in a coordinated U.S.–Israeli military operation.
Panahi, a former Iranian citizen who left the country as a child, used her editorial segment on Outsiders to celebrate the development.
“This will be the shortest editorial I’ll ever deliver,” Panahi said. “All I have to say is that after 47 years of Islamist tyranny, the dictator is dead, and Iran is on the verge of being liberated. I never thought I would see this day in my lifetime.”
She concluded with what she described as “gibberish Persian,” a phrase she translated as an insult directed at the late Iranian leader.
Her statement in Iranian roughly translates to:
“Your father is a dog.
“Dirt be on your head and rot in hell!”
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Co-anchor Rowan Dean acknowledged the personal dimension of the moment.
“We have seen the pain that you have gone through with everything that’s been happening in Iran the whole time I’ve known you, and to hear you positive is just so good,” Dean said.
“It’s just so fantastic.”
Personal Stakes
Panahi reiterated that she has long believed the Iranian regime would eventually fall, but did not expect to witness it herself.
“If I went to Iran today, last week, I’d be trapped in prison and dead rather quickly,” she said.
“They would know what I’ve said about the regime, what I’ve written over many things and said on programs like this, so I’ve never been able to go back.”
She added that she has been unable to return to Iran to visit family or take her son to see the country.
Panahi also praised President Donald Trump’s decision to support the operation that resulted in Khamenei’s death.
“Again, when I talk about Donald Trump and his courage in doing this… to do this in an election year with the midterms looming, this is not a popular course of action,” Panahi said.
“It’s not even popular among many on his own side, who don’t want America to be involved in Iran’s internal politics to be seeking regime change.
“So for him to do this is such an enormous risk, but it’s the right thing to do even at personal political cost.”
Operation “Epic Fury”
Khamenei’s death was confirmed following a targeted Israeli strike in Tehran as part of a coordinated U.S.–Israeli military campaign dubbed “Operation Epic Fury.”
Reports indicated that between five and ten additional senior Iranian leaders were killed in the operation.
The development marks one of the most significant geopolitical shifts in the Middle East in decades, with reactions ranging from celebration among Iranian dissidents to sharp condemnation from regime loyalists.
For Panahi, the moment was both political and deeply personal, the culmination of decades of opposition to the Islamic Republic she fled as a child.
READ MORE – Iran Attacks UK Military Base After British PM Greenlights Strikes
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