Khamenei — the supreme leader who held ultimate control over Iran’s political, military, religious institutions – World

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic republic for more than 30 years, was killed in an attack by the United States and Israel, the two countries that had been calling for regime change in Tehran.

Khamenei, 86, became Iran’s top authority in 1989, following the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

He remained in power after overcoming the 1999 student demonstrations, the 2009 mass protests sparked by the disputed presidential election, and the 2019 demonstrations that were brutally repressed.

It also survived the “Women, Life, Freedom” movement of 2022-2023 triggered by the death in custody of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress code for women.

As supreme leader, he exercised ultimate control over Iran’s political, military and religious institutions, shaping domestic policy and guiding foreign relations.

An article published in Al Jazeera He said that “the loyalty of two of Iran’s main security institutions is fundamental to Khamenei’s power: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary forces, which number hundreds of thousands of volunteers.”

Khamenei defended the conservative vision of his predecessor, Khomeini, quashing the ambitions of elected presidents who sought more open policies at home and abroad. Under his government, authorities sidelined reformists who pushed for less confrontation with the West.

He backed the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated with world powers and pragmatic former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, which briefly eased Iran’s isolation. But tensions rose after US President Donald Trump abandoned the deal in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.

Israel has long viewed him as a destabilizing force in the Middle East, citing his alleged backing of a network of militant allies.

When Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air war in June 2025, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate him, saying the supreme leader “cannot continue to exist.”

Khamenei was forced into hiding during the war, exposing Israeli intelligence’s deep penetration into the Islamic republic that led to the assassination of key security officials in airstrikes.

But he survived that war and, after nationwide protests rocked Iran again earlier this year, emerged more defiant than ever.

Strict security

Khamenei lived under the strictest security and his relatively infrequent public appearances were never announced in advance or broadcast live.

As supreme leader he never set foot outside the country, a precedent set by Khomeini after his triumphant return to Tehran from France in 1979.

Khamenei’s last known foreign trip was an official visit to North Korea in 1989 as president, where he met Kim II Sung.

There had long been speculation about his health given his age, but there was nothing in his most recent appearance to fuel new rumors.

Khamenei’s right arm was partially paralyzed after an assassination attempt in 1981 that authorities have always attributed to the People’s Mujahideen of Iran (MEK) group, former allies of the revolution now banned in the country.

‘I object’

Repeatedly detained under the late Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza, for his anti-imperial activism, Khamenei, soon after the Islamic revolution, became a Friday prayer leader in Tehran and also served on the front lines during the Iran-Iraq war.

He was elected president in 1981 following the assassination of Mohammad Ali Rajai, another attack attributed to the MEK.

During the 1980s, Khomeini’s most likely successor was considered senior cleric Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri, but the revolutionary leader changed his mind shortly before his death after Montazeri opposed mass executions of MEK members and other dissidents.

When Khomeini died and the Islamic republic’s main clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, met, it was Khamenei who was chosen as leader.

Khamenei initially rejected the nomination, putting his hands to his head in a show of desperation and declaring: “I oppose it.” But clerics united to seal his nomination and his grip on power has never wavered.

Khamenei worked under six elected presidents, a much less powerful position than supreme leader, including more moderate figures such as Mohammad Khatami, who were allowed to attempt cautious reforms and rapprochement with the West.

But in the end, Khamenei always sided with the hardliners.

He was believed to have six children, although only one, Mojtaba, was of public prominence. He was sanctioned by the United States in 2019 and is one of the most powerful figures behind the scenes in Iran.

A family dispute also attracted attention: his sister Badri fell out with her family in the 1980s and fled to Iraq in the war to join her husband, a dissident cleric.