Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has orchestrated violent responses to mass protests, including those in 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025, and 2026 (https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/campaigns/2026/01/what-happened-at-the-protests-in-iran/). His responses to mass protests across the country have included live ammunition, mass arrests, months-long internet blackouts, and state-directed blame toward foreign powers.

Furthermore, his regime, the IRGC, was notorious for its support of terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen. That being said, billions of dollars have been funneled from state resources, and major beneficiaries of the IRGC's financial and military apparatus have sent funds into terrorist organizations (https://ge.usembassy.gov/irans-khamenei-funds-terrorism-over-covid-19-aid-workers/).

Syria is celebrating his death because many Syrians blame Khamenei for Iran's role in supporting the Assad regime from 1970 to 2024, during the Syrian Civil War, from March 15, 2011, to December 8, 2024, which killed 580,000 to 650,000 people (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Syrian_civil_war).

Overall, the death of Khamenei in Iran unlocks a new uncertainty that could either destabilize the regime or prompt a crackdown as the leadership seeks to maintain control. Yet, the celebrations across the world are shown as a symbolic rejection of the ideology of "resistance" and perpetual conflict that defined his leadership and hostility toward Israel and the United States.