Iran’s supreme chief Ayatollah Khamenei dies, killed in joint US–Israeli assault

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Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on February 28 died age 86 in a significant assault on Iran launched by Israel and the US. The nation’s supreme chief from 1989 –2026, Khamenei was a conservative cleric with fervent political opinions whose tight grip on energy led to the consolidation of an authoritarian regime in Iran and direct confrontations with the West and Israel.

Khamenei was born in July 1939 within the northeastern metropolis of Mashad. His household was very non secular and hailed from Iran’s Turkish-speaking Azeri minority.

As a younger man, he started superior non secular research within the holy metropolis of Qom below the tutelage of Iran’s future theocrat, the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “Within the areas of political and revolutionary concepts and Islamic jurisprudence, I'm definitely a disciple of Imam Khomeini," learn a quote from Khamenei on his official web site.

A studious disciple with a ardour for poetry, Khamenei not solely adopted his mentor’s non secular teachings, he additionally adopted Khomeini into politics, becoming a member of the Islamic opposition throughout Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s reign.

Launched by Khomeini in 1960, the Islamic opposition aimed to overthrow the shah, who dominated as an absolute monarch. Khamenei was arrested and imprisoned a number of occasions for taking part in anti-regime protests earlier than the autumn of the monarchy throughout the 1979 Iranian Revolution and Khomeini’s subsequent triumphant return to Iran from exile.

The Islamic revolution additionally kick-started Khamenei’s personal political rise. When Khomeini grew to become Iran’s new supreme chief, he appointed Khamenei to the influential place of the imam main Tehran’s Friday Prayers. He additionally grew to become the supreme chief’s consultant on the Iranian Supreme Defence Council.

Controversial succession In June 1981, Khamenei survived an assassination try when a bomb hidden inside a tape recorder exploded subsequent to him in a Tehran mosque. He misplaced using his proper arm within the assault. “I felt that God was sparing me and saving me for heavier duties,” he later mentioned of the incident.

4 months after the assassination try, Khamenei, aged 41, was elected Iran’s president with a landslide 95 % of the vote. He was re-elected in 1985, throughout the Iran-Iraq struggle.

The day after Khomeini’s dying on June 3, 1989, Khamenei was appointed as Iran’s new supreme chief following a rare assembly of the Meeting of Specialists.

Khomeini himself had chosen Khamenei to be his political successor, ousting earlier candidate Ayatollah Ali Montazeri for his democratic leanings. But it surely was a publish he was supposed to carry for an interim interval till a extra religiously certified candidate was chosen.

Regardless of Khamenei’s black turban marking him as a descendent of the Prophet Mohammed, he held solely an intermediate rank within the Shiite clergy.

In controversial circumstances that stay unclear, Khamenei was unexpectedly appointed ayatollah with out having accomplished the required theological research.

As soon as in energy, Khamenei took benefit of an influence wrestle between future Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ahmed Khomeini (the son of the previous chief) – each of whom coveted his publish – to consolidate his place.

As a brand new chief holding more and more radical and conservative beliefs, he made constitutional amendments giving him complete management over the nation and its establishments below the precept of velayat-e-faqih, or “rule of non secular jurists”, enshrining the supremacy of the clergy over the state.

Finally, Khamenei took full management of all of the levers of energy in Iran. He operated as supreme commander of the Iranian armed forces, giving him remaining say in issues of safety, defence and international coverage. He had the ability to dismiss the president and validate presidential elections, and he appointed the entire nation’s prime safety chiefs and the top of the judiciary.

Inexperienced motion, Mahsa Amini: protests in opposition to authority Though Khamenei lacked the non secular authority of his predecessor, he was deeply political.

On the house entrance, he took benefit of the stability of energy inside the regime and commenced to make use of Iran’s safety forces, together with the Revolutionary Guards, to implement his insurance policies. He shaped an in depth relationship with Basic Qasem Soleimani, who was thought-about Khamenei’s second in command till he was assassinated by a US drone strike in January 2020.

Abroad, Khamenei adopted a technique of rigidity with the West and with neighbouring Arab nations akin to Saudi Arabia.

Khamenei managed to keep up his grip on energy with bloody suppressions of avenue protests, together with the 1999 scholar protest, the Inexperienced Motion in opposition to the controversial 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and protests in opposition to rising costs in 2017 and 2019.

In September 2022, a large protest motion was sparked by the dying of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old lady who died in hospital after being arrested by the morality police for improperly sporting her hijab. Widespread outrage over suspected police brutality gave rise to the “Girl, Life, Freedom” motion, with protestors calling for “dying to the dictator”.

Within the yr after Amini’s dying, NGOs reported greater than 500 protesters had been killed by the regime.

An remoted regime Alongside homegrown protest actions that examined Khamenei’s authority and pushed his regime to its limits, on the worldwide stage he grew to become the central determine in one of the vital geopolitical conflicts of the twenty first century: Iran’s nuclear programme.

Accusations from the West and Israel that Iran was secretly creating its personal nuclear weapon had been denied by Tehran. The regime’s isolation on the worldwide stage elevated with tense negotiations with main worldwide powers, who slapped sanctions that introduced the Iranian financial system to its knees.

In 2015, Khamenei – who steadily criticised the US for its “deviant tradition” and “legal diplomacy” – gave his approval for the sweeping nuclear deal between Iran and the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Below the deal, Iran agreed to restrict its nuclear programme, accepting shock UN nuclear inspections, in trade for sanctions aid.

The nuclear deal was considered with suspicion in Israel and Saudi Arabia, notably as Iran elevated its affect in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, stoking tensions within the area.

In 2018, throughout US President Donald Trump’s first time period within the White Home, the US withdrew from the nuclear deal and slapped crippling sanctions in opposition to Tehran, reigniting tensions between Iran, the West and western allies within the Center East.

On Khamenei’s orders, Iran retaliated by accelerating its nuclear programme.

By 2021 – as talks geared toward reinstating the treaty resumed, with oblique participation from the US – the Islamic Republic had reached nuclear milestones together with rising its uranium enrichment price to an unprecedented 60 %.

On October 7, 2023, an unprecedented assault on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas triggered a sequence of occasions that might destabilise Khamenei’s place on the worldwide stage.

Hamas was a part of an “axis of resistance” within the Center East, created by Khamenei and Soleimani, uniting militant and political organisations akin to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.

Retaliatory assaults by Israel on Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis within the wake of the October 7 assault largely decimated their management, taking out what Khamenei meant to be a primary line of defence deterring direct assaults on the Islamic Republic.

Within the autumn of 2024, Khamenei watched helplessly as Israel eradicated Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah chief who had pledged allegiance to Iran’s supreme chief, together with Yahya Sinwar, the chief of Hamas within the Gaza Strip.

In Syria, rebels toppled long-term ally Bashar al-Assad, leaving Khamenei’s grip on the area dramatically diminished.

Hunted by Netanyahu With Iran’s proxies weakened, the trail was cleared for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to launch direct assaults on Iran that he mentioned would dismantle Khamenei’s nuclear programme.

A 12-day struggle broke out in June 2025, when Israeli strikes focused tons of of army and nuclear websites in Iran, killing high-ranking Iranian officers and nuclear scientists.

Tehran launched drones and missile assaults on websites throughout Israel in response, notably concentrating on Tel Aviv and Haifa.

After the US joined the fray, launching strikes on targets in central Iran, all sides accepted a ceasefire deal imposed by Trump.

As Khamenei went into hiding whereas his nation was bombarded, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned that killing the ayatollah “would put an finish to the battle”.

The Unites States “know precisely the place the so-called ‘Supreme Chief’ is hiding”, Trump posted on his Reality Social platform. “He’s a simple goal, however is secure there – We aren't going to take him out (kill!), a minimum of not for now.”

Learn extra Ali Khamenei: Backed right into a nook, Iran’s ruthless chief faces combat for survival

Throughout the battle, none of Tehran’s allies, akin to China and Russia, got here to Khamenei’s help. Iran’s supreme chief emerged from the 12-day struggle having suffered the double humiliation of discovering the extent to which Israeli spies had infiltrated the very best echelons of his regime, and of seemingly owing his survival to the US president.

In January, he has ordered the deadliest crackdown for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution, saying these protesting nationwide, initially in opposition to hovering costs, "needs to be put of their place" earlier than safety forces opened hearth on demonstrators chanting "Dying to the dictator!". He blamed US President Donald Trump for the unrest, saying: "We contemplate the US president legal for the casualties, damages and slander he inflicted on the Iranian nation."

Below strain to barter, Tehran agreed to a number of rounds of talks, whereas the US president threatened the Islamic Republic with army intervention if the discussions didn't lead to an settlement on Iran's nuclear program.

On February 28, Israel and the US launched a marketing campaign of air strikes described as “preventive” in opposition to Iran, stating that it was anticipated to final “a number of days.” Donald Trump straight calls on the Iranian individuals to “seize” energy. Among the many targets in Tehran was Ali Khamenei's coumpound.

Khamenei’s dying, after a long time of consolidating his grip on energy, opens a interval of deep uncertainty for Iran, the way forward for its nuclear programme and the survival of a regime that's more and more remoted internationally and rejected by a lot of the nation’s youth.