Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic republic for over 30 years, has been killed in a strike by the US and Israel — the two countries that had been calling for regime change in Tehran.
Khamenei, 86, became Iran’s highest authority in 1989, following the death of the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
He remained in power after overcoming 1999 student demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by disputed presidential elections and 2019 demonstrations that were brutally suppressed.
He also survived the 2022-2023 “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement sparked 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 held ultimate control over Iran’s political, military and religious institutions, shaping domestic policy and guiding foreign relations.
An article published in Al Jazeera said “critical to Khamenei’s power is the loyalty of two of Iran’s premier security institutions – the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Basij paramilitary forces, which have hundreds of ?thousands of volunteers”.
Khamenei upheld the conservative vision of his predecessor, Khomeini, quashing the ambitions of elected presidents who sought more open policies at home and abroad. Under his rule, authorities sidelined reformists pushing for 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. But tensions spiked after US President Donald Trump abandoned the accord in 2018 and reimposed sanctions.
Israel has long seen him as a destabilising force in the Middle East, citing his alleged backing for a network of militant allies.
When Israel and Iran fought a 12-day air war in June 2025, Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz threatened to assassinate him, saying the supreme leader “cannot continue to exist.”
Khamenei was forced to go into hiding during the war, which exposed deep Israeli intelligence penetration of the Islamic republic that led to the killing of key security officials in air strikes.
But he survived that war and, after nationwide protests again shook Iran earlier this year, 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 paralysed 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 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 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.
