Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and the ultimate authority over the military, judiciary and political system, led the country through war, sanctions, crackdowns on protests and nuclear stand-offs.
He was killed, aged 86, on February 28 in a wave of joint US-Israeli strikes targeting Tehran and other Iranian cities, state media announced. The government has declared 40 days of mourning.
His killing is the most seismic shock to the country since Islamic Revolution of 1979, mainly because he was considered its ultimate guardian and the symbol of the Iranian regime's continuity after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
As supreme leader, he stood above the elected president and held final say over Iran’s armed forces, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as state institutions and broad strategic decisions.
His authority made him the central figure in shaping Iran’s domestic direction and its confrontational relationship with the US and other international rivals.
Revolutionary roots
Born in 1939 in Mashhad to a religious family, Khamenei studied Islamic theology and became involved in political opposition to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. He was arrested several times by the security services for his activities before the Islamic Revolution brought clerics to power under Khomeini.
Following the revolution, Khamenei rose steadily through the ranks. In 1981, he was elected president, serving during the devastating Iran-Iraq war that lasted until 1988 and shaped Iran’s security doctrine and mistrust of foreign powers.
In 1989, after Khomeini’s death, Iran’s Assembly of Experts appointed him as the supreme leader. His elevation came despite debate at the time over his religious seniority, but he gradually consolidated his position as the country’s ultimate authority.
Over the following decades, he strengthened the role of the security establishment, particularly the IRGC, and oversaw Iran’s emergence as an aggressive regional power with influence extending across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen.
As commander-in-chief, he also held ultimate authority over Iran’s missile development and atomic programme. While publicly rejecting the pursuit of nuclear weapons, he supported negotiations at key moments, including those that led to the landmark 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers.
He was believed to have been married to Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh and had six children, four sons and two daughters. His second son, Mojtaba, is the most prominent and is believed to wield influence behind the scenes, with some viewing him as a successor, while the rest of his family largely maintains low public profiles.
State media reported that one of his daughters, her husband and their son were killed in the attacks in which Khamenei himself perished.
His right arm was reportedly partially paralysed in an assassination attempt in June 1981, when a bomb hidden in a tape recorder exploded during a speech at a mosque in Tehran. He survived the attack but suffered severe nerve damage.
He typically wore thin-framed glasses, which had become one of his defining features, along with a trimmed beard, black or dark brown robe and black turban.
Confrontation and survival
Khamenei consistently framed Iran as resisting western pressure and defending its sovereignty. Under his leadership, Iran endured decades of economic sanctions and political isolation.
At home, his rule was marked by periodic unrest, including major protest movements in 1999, 2009, 2019, 2022, 2025 and 2026. Authorities suppressed demonstrations, killing thousands and reflecting the leadership’s determination to preserve the Islamic Republic amid internal dissent and external pressure.
Despite repeated crises, he maintained continuity at the top of Iran’s system long after many of the revolution’s original figures had died.
Soft-spoken and almost never travelling abroad, Mr Khamenei cultivated an image of ideological consistency. He exercised influence largely through speeches, religious authority and control of key institutions.
Presidents came and went, representing competing political factions, but ultimate authority remained with the supreme leader.
His leadership helped ensure the survival of the Islamic Republic beyond its founding generation and entrenched a system in which clerical authority and military power remain central.
He was seen by Iran’s regional proxies as the ultimate authority, ideological guide and protector of what Tehran calls the Axis of Resistance.
His death will create a major power vacuum and a potentially tense succession process. Rather than weakening the regime, such an event could strengthen hardliners, fuel anger, and push Iran towards a more confrontational path.
His eventual succession is expected to mark one of the most significant turning points for Iran and the wider Middle East, shaping the country’s political direction and relations with the world for years to come.
