Ali Khamenei

Not to be confused with his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini.

Ali Khamenei
علی خامنه‌ای
Khamenei in 2024
2nd Supreme Leader of Iran
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 August 1989[nb]
President
Preceded byRuhollah Khomeini
3rd President of Iran
In office
9 October 1981 – 16 August 1989[1]
Supreme Leader
  • Ruhollah Khomeini
  • Himself
Prime MinisterMir-Hossein Mousavi
Preceded byMohammad-Ali Rajai
Succeeded byAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
1st Chairman of the Expediency Discernment Council
In office
7 February 1988 – 4 June 1989
Appointed byRuhollah Khomeini
Preceded byOffice established
Succeeded byAkbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Member of the Assembly of Experts
In office
15 August 1983 – 4 June 1989
ConstituencyTehran Province[2]
Majority2,800,353 (87.8%)[3]
Member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly
In office
28 May 1980 – 13 October 1981
ConstituencyTehran, Rey and Shemiranat
Majority1,405,976 (65.8%)[4]
Tehran's Friday Prayer Imam
Incumbent
Assumed office
14 January 1980
Appointed byRuhollah Khomeini
Interim Imams
See list
Preceded byHussein-Ali Montazeri
Personal details
Born
Ali Hosseini Khameneh[5]

(1939-04-19) 19 April 1939 (age 85) (actual date)[6]
(1939-07-16) 16 July 1939 (age 85)[7] (certificate date)[5]
Mashhad, Khorasan, Imperial State of Iran
Political partyIndependent (since 1989)
Other political
affiliations
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1964)​
Children6, including Mostafa, Mojtaba, and Masoud[9]
Parents
Relatives
ResidenceHouse of Leadership
Education
Signature
Websiteenglish.khamenei.ir
Military service
AllegianceIslamic Republic of Iran
Branch/service
Years of service1979–1980, 1980–1981
CommandsRevolutionary Guards[12]
Battles/wars
Personal
ReligionIslam
DenominationTwelver Shiʿa
JurisprudenceJa'fari
CreedUsuli
Main interest(s)Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Tafsir[10]
Notable idea(s)Fatwa against nuclear weapons
Muslim leader
Teacher
Ali Khamenei's voice
Khamenei speaking at the
Hussainiya of Lovers of Karbala in Sari
Recorded 14 October 1995
n.b. ^ Acting: 4 June – 6 August 1989[13]

Ali Hosseini Khamenei[5][a] (born 19 April 1939)[14][15] is an Iranian cleric and politician who has served as the second supreme leader of Iran since 1989.[16][17][18] He previously served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei's 35-year-long rule makes him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East, as well as the second-longest-serving Iranian leader of the last century after Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[19] Khamenei is a marja', a title given to the highest level of religious cleric in Twelver Shi'sm.

According to his official website, Khamenei was arrested six times before being exiled for three years during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.[20] In June 1981, after the Iranian revolution and the overthrow of the shah, he was the target of an attempted assassination that paralyzed his right arm.[21][22] Khamenei was one of Iran's leaders during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, and developed close ties with the Revolutionary Guards, which he controls, and whose commanders are elected and dismissed by him. The Revolutionary Guards have been deployed to suppress opposition to him.[23][24] Khamenei served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989, while becoming a close ally of the first supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini. Shortly before his death, Khomeini had a disagreement with the heir he had chosen—Hussein Ali Montazeri—so there was no agreed-on successor when Khomeini died. The Assembly of Experts elected Khamenei as the next supreme leader on 4 June 1989, at age 50. According to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Khamenei was the man Khomeini had chosen as his successor. Khamenei has been head of the servants of Astan Quds Razavi since 14 April 1979.[25]

As supreme leader, Khamenei is the most powerful political authority in the Islamic Republic.[26][27] He is the head of state of Iran, the commander-in-chief of its armed forces, and can issue decrees and make the final decisions on the main policies of the government in economy, the environment, foreign policy, and national planning in Iran.[28][29][30][31][32][33] As supreme leader, Khamenei has either direct or indirect control over the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government, as well as the military and media.[19] All candidates for the Assembly of Experts, the presidency and the Majlis (Parliament) are vetted by the Guardian Council, whose members are selected directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader of Iran.[34] There have also been instances when the Guardian Council reversed its ban on particular people after being ordered to do so by Khamenei.[35]

There have been major protests during Khamenei's reign, including the 1994 Qazvin protests,[36] the 1999 student protests, the 2009 presidential election protests,[37][38][39] the 2011–12 protests, the 2017–18 protests, the 2018–19 general strikes and protests, the 2019–20 protests, the 2021–22 protests, and the Mahsa Amini protests. Journalists, bloggers, and others have been imprisoned in Iran for insulting Khamenei, often in conjunction with blasphemy charges. Their sentences have included lashing and jail time; some have died in custody.[40][41] Regarding the nuclear program of Iran, Khamenei issued a fatwa in 2003 forbidding the production, stockpiling and use of all kinds of weapons of mass destruction.

  1. ^ "letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani and resignation from presidency" (in Persian). Khamenei.ir. 16 August 1989. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
  2. ^ "1982 Assembly of Experts Election", The Iran Social Science Data Portal, Princeton University, archived from the original on 19 October 2015, retrieved 10 August 2015
  3. ^ "چه کسی در نخستین انتخابات خبرگان اول شد؟ +جدول". 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017.
  4. ^ "Parliament members" (in Persian). Iranian Majlis. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  5. ^ a b c "A photo of Identity document of Ayatollah Khamenei" (in Persian). Khamenei.ir. 1 February 2010. Archived from the original on 14 August 2017. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
  6. ^ "روایتی از تاریخ دقیق تولد رهبر انقلاب از زبان معظم‌له+عکس". مشرق نیوز. 16 April 2016.
  7. ^ "تصویری از شناسنامه حضرت آیت‌الله خامنه‌ای".
  8. ^ "جامعه روحانيت مبارز جوان مي‌شود" [Combatant Clergy Association gets younger] (in Persian). Fararu. 8 July 2012. 118101. Archived from the original on 2 September 2016. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
  9. ^ Kazemzadeh, Masoud (n.d.). "Ayatollah Khamenei's Foreign Policy Orientation". Comparative Strategy. 32 (5): 443–458. doi:10.1080/01495933.2013.840208. eISSN 1521-0448. ISSN 0149-5933. S2CID 153558136.
  10. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference cgie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ a b Raee, Sajjad (Winter 2008). Ardestani, Hussein (ed.). نقش آیت‌الله خامنه‌ای در دفاع مقدس: سال اول جنگ [Ayatollah Khamanei's Role in the Sacred Defense: During the First Year] (PDF). Negin-e Iran: Quarterly for Studies of Iran–Iraq War (in Persian). 7 (26): 9–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 April 2016. Retrieved 15 January 2018.
  12. ^ Detailed biography of Ayatollah Khamenei, Leader of Islamic Revolution, Khamenei.ir, 23 September 2013, archived from the original on 10 April 2016, retrieved 17 March 2016
  13. ^ Entekhab.ir, پایگاه خبری تحلیلی انتخاب. "توضیحات مجلس خبرگان درباره جلسه انتخاب آیت‌الله خامنه‌ای به عنوان رهبر در سال 1368/ آیت‌الله گلپایگانی فقط 14 رأی داشت". پایگاه خبری تحلیلی انتخاب – Entekhab.ir.
  14. ^ "Ali Khamenei". CGIE (fa).
  15. ^ "taking look at the biography of Ali Khamenei". khamenei (fa). 21 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
  16. ^ "Ali Khamenei". (2024) [2001]. Encyclopædia Britannica.
  17. ^ "Iran". State. 23 July 2010. Retrieved 21 August 2010. The government monitored meetings, movements, and communications of its citizens and often charged persons with crimes against national security and insulting the regime based on letters, e-mails, and other public and private communications.
  18. ^ "Profile: Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei". BBC News. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  19. ^ a b "The Supreme Leader – The Iran Primer". 2 October 2010. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
  20. ^ "Khamenei.ir". Archived from the original on 12 November 2013.
  21. ^ Khamenei has kept a low profile[permanent dead link‍] Agence France Presse, 20 June 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.[dead link‍]
  22. ^ Maziar Bahari (6 April 2007). "How Khamenei Keeps Control". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
  23. ^ "Khamenei Will Be Iran's Last Supreme Leader". Newsweek. 17 November 2009. Archived from the original on 16 September 2017. referring to the enormous power Khamenei has given Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, which, under Khamenei's direct control, has brutally repressed demonstrators, human rights activists, and opposition journalists.
  24. ^ Jamsheed K. Choksy. "Tehran Politics: Are the Mullahs Losing Their Grip?". World Affairs Journal. Archived from the original on 22 July 2017. Khamenei has strengthened alliances with militant commanders, especially within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), in the hope that all opposition to his authority will continue to be suppressed—as it was during the protests of 2009.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  25. ^ "انتصاب آیت‌الله خامنه‌ای به عنوان رئیس خدمه‌ی آستان قدس رضوی". farsi.khamenei.ir. khamenei.ir. 14 April 1979. Archived from the original on 19 August 2017. Retrieved 19 August 2017.
  26. ^ "Profile: Iran's 'unremarkable' supreme leader Khamenei". BBC News. 4 August 2011. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012.
  27. ^ Ganji, Akbar, "The Latter-Day Sultan: Power and Politics in Iran", Foreign Affairs, November December 2008
  28. ^ "Iran's Khamenei hits out at Rafsanjani in rare public rebuke". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016.
  29. ^ "Khamenei says Iran must go green – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2016.
  30. ^ Louis Charbonneau and Parisa Hafezi (16 May 2014). "Exclusive: Iran pursues ballistic missile work, complicating nuclear talks". Reuters. Archived from the original on 31 July 2017.
  31. ^ "IranWire – Asking for a Miracle: Khamenei's Economic Plan". Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
  32. ^ "Khamenei outlines 14-point plan to increase population". 22 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
  33. ^ "Iran: Executive, legislative branch officials endorse privatization plan". Archived from the original on 5 January 2017.
  34. ^ "Rafsanjani breaks taboo over selection of Iran's next supreme leader". The Guardian. 14 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016.
  35. ^ "Iran reverses ban on reformist candidates". The Guardian. 24 May 2005. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016.
  36. ^ "The Basij Mostazafan – A culture of martyrdom and death". Al Arabiya. 6 December 2016. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016.
  37. ^ "Khamenei was the victim of an attempted assassination". LinkDay. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016.
  38. ^ "Police Are Said to Have Killed 10 in Iran Protests". The New York Times. 28 December 2009. Archived from the original on 5 February 2010.
  39. ^ "Several killed, 300 arrested in Tehran protests". CNN. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009.
  40. ^ "IRAN 2015 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT" (PDF). United States State Department. During the year the government arrested students, journalists, lawyers, political activists, women's activists, artists, and members of religious minorities; charged many with crimes such as "propaganda against the system" and "insulting the supreme leader;" and treated such cases as national security trials (see sections 1.a. through 1.e.; section 6, Women; and section 7.a.).
  41. ^ "IRAN 2016 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT" (PDF). United States State Department.


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