Who is Khamenei? Get to know Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader who has ruled Iran for several decades, while leaders from Israel and the United States have claimed that he died in an airstrike last Saturday (28 Feb 2026).
Ali Khamenei was born in 1941 in Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. He is the son of a religious scholar and joined Ayatollah Khomeini’s religious opposition movement against Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1962.
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Ali Khamenei served as deputy defense minister and played a key role in founding the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Following Khomeini’s death in June 1989, Iran’s Assembly of Experts—a council of Islamic scholars and religious leaders—chose Ali Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, even though at that time he had not attained the clerical rank required by the constitution for Shia clergy, known as Marja-e taqlid or Grand Ayatollah.
To legitimize this, the constitution was amended to require the Supreme Leader to demonstrate "Islamic scholarly credentials," which allowed Ali Khamenei to become an Ayatollah and be appointed as the new Supreme Leader.
After assuming office, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei exercised absolute control over Iran’s political power and military forces, ruthlessly suppressing those who challenged the regime, sometimes using violence.
Khamenei has consistently maintained a hardline foreign policy, including ongoing confrontations with the United States that continue to this day.
He remains distrustful of building relations with Western countries, especially the US. He has frequently called for the elimination of the State of Israel and publicly questioned whether the Jewish Holocaust actually occurred.
Throughout Khamenei’s rule, Iran has had seven presidents, while he himself has six children.
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Source:bbc