Ali Khamenei

Ali Hosseini Khamenei was an Iranian politician and Shia cleric who served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in the 2026 Iran war. A member of the Khamenei family, he previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. He held the title Grand Ayatollah, and his tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in West Asia at the time of his death.

On 28 February 2026, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran targeting military and government sites and assassinating several Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The surprise attacks were launched during negotiations between Iran and the US regarding Iran's nuclear program. Iran responded with missile and drone strikes against Israel, US bases, and US-allied Arab countries in the Middle East, and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, disrupting global trade.

The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, officially styled as the leader of the Islamic Revolution or the leadership of the Islamic jurist by the Iranian Constitution, is the highest political and religious authority in Iran, taking precedence above the president who is the country's de jure head of state. The armed forces, judiciary, state radio and television, and other key government organizations such as the Guardian Council and Expediency Discernment Council are subject to the supreme leader.

The 2025–2026 Iranian protests are a series of nationwide demonstrations against the government of Iran that began on 28 December 2025 amid a deepening economic crisis. The unrest followed a sharp depreciation of the Iranian rial, rising inflation, and widespread shortages linked to international sanctions and government mismanagement. This event has been the largest uprising in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, spreading to more than 200 cities across the country. The ensuing crackdown, reportedly carried out under orders by Ali Khamenei and senior officials to use live fire on protesters, resulted in massacres that left thousands of protesters dead, making them the largest massacres in modern Iranian history.

Iranian protest movement in 2022–2023

Iranian retaliatory strikes against Israel on 1 October 2024

1981 terror attacks on Ali khamenei

House of Leadership

protests outside of Iran against the Iranian regime

4th Iranian presidential election

3rd Iranian presidential election

political slogan in Iran

1989 Iranian supreme leader election

political slogan in Iran

Shia international organisation headquartered in Tehran

Statement of Iranian policy

2019 statement by Ali Khamenei

Iranian cleric