Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dominated the Islamic republic for over 30 years, has been killed in a strike by the US and Israel — the 2 international locations that had been calling for a regime change in Tehran.
Khamenei, 86, grew to become Iran’s highest authority in 1989, following the dying of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
He remained in energy after overcoming 1999 pupil demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by disputed presidential elections and 2019 demonstrations that had been brutally suppressed.
He additionally survived the 2022-2023 “Lady, Life, Freedom” motion sparked by the dying in custody of Iranian Kurdish lady Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict gown code for ladies.
As supreme chief, he held final management over Iran’s political, army and non secular establishments, shaping home coverage and guiding overseas relations.
An article revealed in Al Jazeera stated “important to Khamenei’s energy is the loyalty of two of Iran’s premier safety establishments – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary forces, which have a whole bunch of 1000’s of volunteers”.
Khamenei upheld the conservative imaginative and prescient of his predecessor, Khomeini, quashing the ambitions of elected presidents who sought extra open insurance policies at residence and overseas. Below his rule, authorities sidelined reformists pushing for much less confrontation with the West.
He backed the 2015 nuclear deal brokered with world powers and pragmatist former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, which briefly eased Iran’s isolation. However tensions spiked after US President Donald Trump deserted the settlement in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
Israel has lengthy seen him as a destabilizing drive within the Center East, citing his alleged backing for a community of militant allies.
When Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air warfare in June 2025, Israeli Protection Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate him, saying the supreme chief “can’t live on.”
Khamenei was pressured to enter hiding in the course of the warfare, which uncovered deep Israeli intelligence penetration of the Islamic republic that led to the killing of key safety officers in air strikes.
However he survived that warfare and, after nationwide protests once more shook Iran earlier this yr, he emerged defiant as ever.
Tight security
Khamenei lived under the tightest 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 following 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 any new rumours.
Khamenei’s right arm was partially paralyzed following an assassination attempt in 1981 that authorities have always blamed on the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) group, one-time allies of the revolution now outlawed in the country.
‘I am opposed’
Repeatedly arrested under the late Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza for his anti-imperial activism, Khamenei, shortly after the Islamic revolution, became the Friday prayer leader of Tehran and also served on the front line during the Iran-Iraq war.
He was elected president in 1981 following the assassination of Mohammad Ali Rajai, another attack blamed on the MEK.
During the 1980s, Khomeini’s most likely successor was seen as the senior cleric Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri, but the revolutionary leader changed his mind shortly before his death after Montazeri objected to the mass executions of MEK members and other dissidents.
When Khomeini died and the Islamic republic’s top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, met, it was Khamenei whom they chose as leader.
Khamenei famously initially rejected the nomination, putting his head in his hands in a show of despair and declaring, “I am opposed”. But the clerics stood in unison to seal his nomination and his grip on power has never slackened.
Khamenei worked with six elected presidents, a far less powerful position than the supreme leader, including more moderate figures, such as Mohammad Khatami, who were allowed to make stabs at cautious reform and rapprochement with the West.
But in the end, Khamenei always came down on the side of hardliners.
He was believed to have six children although only one, Mojtaba, had public prominence. He was placed under sanctions by the United States in 2019 and is one of the most powerful backstage figures in Iran.
A family dispute also caught 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.
