ayatollah ali khamenei

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Ali Hosseini Khamenei (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination at the onset of the 2026 Iran war. He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. His tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East at the time of his death. He held the title of Ayatollah and was considered one of the world's leading maraji' of Twelver Shi'ism.
Born into the Khamenei family, he studied at a hawza in his hometown of Mashhad, later settling in Qom in 1958, where he attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei became involved in opposition to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and was arrested six times before being exiled for three years by the Shah's regime. Khamenei was a mainstream figure in the Iranian Revolution, and upon its success, held many posts in the newly established Islamic republic. In the aftermath of the revolution, he was the target of an attempted assassination that paralysed his right arm. There had been continued assassination threats against Khamenei by Israel. Khamenei served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 during the Iran–Iraq War, when he also developed close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). After the death and state funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei was elected supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts. During the deliberations, Khamenei expressed reservations about his religious qualifications and suitability for the position. As opposed to his predecessor, who held the rank of Grand Ayatollah, Khamenei was then a mid-ranking cleric and did not meet the constitutional requirement of marja'. The constitution was subsequently amended to remove that requirement, and the Assembly reconfirmed his leadership later that year.
As supreme leader, Khamenei claimed to support Iran's nuclear program for civilian use while issuing a fatwa forbidding the production of weapons of mass destruction and promoted scientific and technological development despite international sanctions. Khamenei favoured economic privatization of state-owned industries and, with oil and gas reserves, transformed Iran into an energy superpower. His foreign policy centered on Shia Islamism and exporting the Islamic Revolution, as well as countering the United States and Israel through supporting terrorism and indirect conflict. Khamenei played a pivotal role in the development of the IRGC, transforming it into a primary tool for domestic control and regional influence. Under Khamenei, Iran supported the "Axis of Resistance" coalition in the Syrian civil war, War in Iraq, Yemeni civil war and the Gaza war, as well as Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war. A staunch opponent of Israel and of Zionism, Khamenei supported Hamas in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; his rhetoric included calls for Israel's destruction and antisemitic tropes. He also supported Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. Under Khamenei, Iran had hostile relations with the United States and was involved in proxy wars with Israel and Saudi Arabia. In 2025 and 2026, tensions with Israel and the United States escalated into the Twelve-Day War and the 2026 Iran war, during the latter of which Khamenei was assassinated on the first day.
Khamenei's leadership was closely associated with the expansion of state militarization and the consolidation of power within the office of the supreme leader. He cracked down on political opponents, including liberals, monarchists, leftist factions, moderate clerics, and other political dissidents, while occasionally easing restrictions when the regime's stability or legitimacy had been threatened. Khamenei was widely considered as an authoritarian responsible for political repression and state-sanctioned violence and other human-rights abuses. Journalists, activists, and other individuals were persecuted for actions including insulting the supreme leader, sometimes alongside blasphemy charges, with penalties ranging from imprisonment to corporal punishment. There were many protests during his rule, including in 1999, 2009, 2017–2018, 2018–2019, 2022–2023, and 2025–26, with the final protests against his rule leading to the 2026 Iran massacres under his direct authorization.

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