Biography of Ayatollah Khamenei | Introduction Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei is the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, one of the highest-ranking figures in the Shia Muslim world, and a central political authority in Iran since the 1980s. Revered as a religious scholar and political leader, Ayatollah Khamenei succeeded Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989 and has since played a pivotal role in shaping Iran’s domestic and foreign policies. Ali Khamenei (b. 1939) has stood at the heart of the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, playing a pivotal role in both the militarization of the state and the consolidation of near-absolute authority in the Office of the Supreme Leader. Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd as he arrives for a ceremony marking the anniversary of the 1989 death of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini at his ... With the nation watching, the host on Iranian state television asked the question that so many people in Iran — from the political elite to people on the street — were wondering. “People are very worried about the supreme leader,” the host said to an official from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ’s ...
