During his rule, he spoke out openly against the United States, which he claimed aimed to overthrow the Islamic Republic and restore a patron-client relationship with Tehran.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader and the country’s highest authority who led the Islamic Republic for nearly four decades, was killed in airstrikes by the United States and Israel on February 28, at the age of 86. Hailed by supporters as a wise leader and by critics as a dictator, Khamenei will be remembered as a monumental figure of the Islamic Revolution who built his rise to supreme leader on a reputation for piety and fierce commitment to the cause. The use of force against his own people, the imprisonment of opposition figures within the leadership, and his fierce resistance to outside influence – particularly that of the United States and Israel – shaped his legacy as a harsh and uncompromising figure who led the country toward international isolation. “History will show that Khamenei’s rule was deeply traumatic for the Iranian people, who saw their country isolated and weakened to the point where most saw emigration as their only hope,” said Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.
The final years of Khamenei’s rule were marked by frequent nationwide protests against the leadership and a deadly state crackdown that left thousands of demonstrators dead. Protests over the high cost of living in 2017, fuel prices in 2019, water shortages in 2021, and the death in custody of Mahsa Amin, a young woman suspected of violating the hijab law in 2022, reflected the rise in anti-regime sentiment in Iran. But the deadliest protests against the Islamic Republic erupted in late December 2025 and continued into early January 2026. The unrest was brutally suppressed, with human rights organizations confirming over 7,000 deaths, but warning that the real number is likely much higher. Some estimates put the number at four times the confirmed figure. Khamenei never took responsibility for the growing discontent against his rule and, instead, blamed foreign actors for the protests against the leadership, claiming they aimed to weaken the Islamic Republic.
Throughout his life, Khamenei showed a unique ability to play both sides. Those who met him in his youth remember him as a tall, thin cleric who loved poetry and literature and was interested in talking to young people. This stands in stark contrast to the later, bearded figure and anti-American approach that captured the world’s attention. Under the once outspoken leader’s watch, repression flourished, the inner circle in Tehran narrowed, and the Islamic Republic became increasingly isolated. For decades, he had the final say on almost every issue in Iran — from whether women could ride bicycles in public to the country’s approach to relations with the United States, which he called “the Great Devil.”
Khamenei wielded his power freely over key institutions such as the judiciary, state broadcaster and army. When he needed force, he relied on the military security apparatus that included the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran’s formidable intelligence services. “By empowering the Revolutionary Guard, he militarized the country’s politics and, by collaborating with the clerical establishment, delegitimized it,” said Ali Vaez, director of the Iran Project at the International Crisis Group. Born in Mashhad in 1939, Khamenei was the second son of a cleric. He began his religious education early, was inspired in his teens by the fiery revolutionary Sayyid Navvab Safavi, and studied in the holy city of Qom under the guidance of the future founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
Khamenei gained a reputation as a humble and devout religious scholar and, in 1962, joined Khomeini’s revolutionary movement, which opposed the Shah and Tehran’s pro-American policies. His revolutionary activism attracted the attention of the authorities, leading to his arrest and imprisonment, the first of many. In 1964, the 25-year-old Khamenei decided to leave Qomi to care for his father—a “good deed” that he later said was blessed by God and attributed to his later success. In Mashhad, Khamenei gave lectures on the Quran and Islamic ideology, which led to imprisonment, torture, and ultimately internal exile. When the revolution occurred in 1979, he was appointed to the Islamic Revolutionary Council by his former mentor, Khomeini. He would hold several important positions within the clerical regime – including two terms as president – and survived an assassination attempt in 1981 that paralyzed his right hand. When Khomeini died in 1989 without a clear successor, Khamenei was elected as Iran’s second supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body. The election surprised many – apparently including Khamenei himself. “We must shed tears of blood for the Islamic society that was even forced to propose me [as supreme leader],” Khamenei had said before his appointment. “Unlike his predecessor, who did not belong to any particular political faction, Ayatollah Khamenei was the de facto leader of the conservative camp. Thus, he lost the ability to stay above the fray and effectively manage factional rivalries,” Vaez said.
During his rule, he spoke out against the United States, which he claimed was seeking to overthrow the Islamic Republic and restore a patron-client relationship with Tehran. Under his watch, Iran expanded its influence in the region through the so-called “Axis of Resistance” – a loose network of proxies, Tehran-backed militant groups and allied state actors that play a key role in Iran’s strategy to confront the West, its Arab adversaries and its arch-rival, Israel. But this network disintegrated after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria in 2024 and an Israeli campaign to destroy the leadership of Hezbollah in Lebanon, a group designated a terrorist group by the US, to weaken the capabilities of the Houthis in Yemen and to severely hit Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also designated a terrorist group by the US and other powers.
Khamenei largely disappeared from public view during Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June 2025, raising questions about his leadership in the country’s political circles. Khamenei has clashed with many of Iran’s presidents, who have since been marginalized from the leadership. The main exception was Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline cleric who many believed was being groomed to succeed Khamenei as supreme leader. Raisi died in a helicopter crash in May 2024, complicating Khamenei’s succession plans.
The 88-member Assembly of Experts, dominated by conservative clerics, will now have to name a successor to Khamenei. “He will be remembered as a man who had many opportunities to listen to his people and change his approach. But as supreme leader he was so firm in his rigid positions, so determined to triumph over internal and external rivals, and so deeply insecure, that he never really chose to reflect,” Vatanka said. Khamenei is survived by four sons, a daughter and his wife. The second daughter reportedly died in the same US and Israeli strikes that killed Khamenei. (RFE)