Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed during United States and Israeli missile strikes on the Islamic Republic on Saturday.
The death of the 86-year-old man, who had led Iran since 1989, was confirmed by state media on Sunday.
Iran responded to the assassination, which plunged the Middle East nation into its greatest crisis since the 1979 revolution, with missile strikes on Israel and U.S. military assets in the Middle East.
The ramifications spread quickly around the world with significant impacts on air travel, shipping and energy prices.
However, political analysts said the assassination would not necessarily lead to regime change, with Iran’s leadership set up to avoid reliance on one person and power spread across religious institutions, security organisations and power networks.
"The Iranian system is bigger than one man - removing Khamenei could harden the regime rather than weaken it," Danny Citrinowicz of the Atlantic Council was quoted in a Reuters story.
U.S. President Donald Trump said the attack was intended to ensure Iran could not have a nuclear weapon, to contain its missile program and to eliminate threats to the United States and its allies.
He also warned in a post on his Trump’s Truth social media platform: "The heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or, as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!"
Russian President Vladimir Putin described Khamenei's death as a cynical murder, and China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi denounced it as "blatant killing".
Traders expected a sharp increase in oil prices after reports of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a passage through which about a fifth of global oil consumption passes, while airlines cancelled flights in the Middle East.
A senior Israeli official said the Iranian leader's body was found after a strike, and U.S. President Donald Trump said the United States worked closely with Israel to target Khamenei.
Witnesses said Iranians celebrated Khamenei's death in the streets, but footage showed some mourners dressed in black crying in a square.
