BEIRUT — Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, killed in the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran on Saturday, spent more than 30 years in power demonizing the United States, calling for the destruction of Israel, and maintaining an iron grip on Iranian politics while expanding its influence across the Middle East. President Donald Trump announced Khamenei’s death Saturday on Truth Social, a claim echoed by Israeli officials. As Iran’s spiritual leader and highest authority, 86-year-ancient Khamenei was the ultimate arbiter in state affairs, including the economy, education, and defense. He was the region’s longest-serving head of state and the second holder of the post of supreme leader in Iran.
Khamenei furthered the foreign policy of his predecessor and founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, positioning Iran in opposition to the combined military might of the U.S. And Israel. He ruthlessly suppressed internal challenges to his rule, most recently in January, when Iranians protested for economic reforms, a response met with the killing of thousands by security forces.
Khamenei’s death marks a pivotal moment for Iran. The question now is whether his successor will moderate the country’s course or continue its indirect confrontation with Washington, the West, and Israel. Iran’s Constitution dictates that a new leader will be selected by the Assembly of Experts, a body of 88 clerics. Khamenei significantly influenced the composition of this assembly, giving him considerable control over the succession process.
One leading contender is Mojtaba Khamenei, the second of Khamenei’s four sons. The 56-year-old cleric studied in the religious city of Qom. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned him in 2019 for working with the Quds Force, the irregular warfare branch of the Revolutionary Guard, and the Basij, a volunteer paramilitary force, “to advance his father’s destabilizing regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives.”
During his long rule, Khamenei positioned Tehran at the center of a network of governments, groups, and proxies, including Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels, unnerving neighboring Arab states. His pursuit of nuclear power, despite claims of peaceful intent, agitated the West, culminating in a brief war with Israel in 2025.
Described as a tall, bearded man with a severe demeanor, Khamenei rose to power through his alliance with hard-liners, particularly the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, with whom he became close during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. He occasionally tolerated compromise, reluctantly endorsing the 2015 nuclear deal that curbed Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. However, he maintained a distrust of Washington, a stance he held throughout his rule. When Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018, it strengthened the position of hard-liners within Iran. “The body of this man, Trump, will turn to ashes and become the food of the worms and ants,” Khamenei said following Trump’s withdrawal, “while the Islamic Republic continues to stand.”
That same year, Khamenei stated on social media that Israel was “a malignant cancerous tumor” that needed to be eradicated, ominously adding that “it is possible and it will happen.” Despite this rhetoric, Khamenei generally avoided open war, even after Trump ordered the drone strike that killed his top enforcer, Maj. Gen. Qassem Suleimani, in 2020.
Khamenei was wary of escalating hostilities with the U.S., Israel, and Iran’s Persian Gulf neighbors, mindful of the fates of other regional autocrats, such as Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi, who were toppled by U.S.-led offensives. This strategy proved effective during the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, allowing Iran to expand its influence over its former adversary. A 2018 U.S. Army history of the invasion concluded that “an emboldened and expansionist Iran appears to be the only victor.”
After Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and kidnapping around 250 others, war between Israel and Iran – which backed Hamas – seemed imminent. For 20 months, even as Israel killed Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, and helped topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, Iran responded with ballistic missiles but refrained from escalating the conflict.
The situation changed in June 2025 when Israel struck Iran, claiming it was acting to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. This attack occurred as Tehran and the second Trump administration were reportedly making progress in nuclear negotiations. The talks stalled after Israel eliminated Iran’s top military command and leading nuclear scientists. The U.S. Subsequently joined the strikes, using “bunker buster” bombs to penetrate underground facilities. Iran responded with missile launches on Israel but did not further escalate the conflict.
Whoever succeeds Khamenei will have to contend with the Revolutionary Guard, which has amassed power under his leadership and is unlikely to relinquish it. This uncertainty echoes the circumstances surrounding Khamenei’s own rise to power. Born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad, Khamenei was the second of eight children. He began religious instruction at age four and continued his studies at a network of seminaries. In his twenties, he encountered Khomeini, becoming a loyal follower and running secret missions for him while Khomeini was in exile. This loyalty came at a cost, with years of imprisonment and torture at the hands of the shah’s secret police, SAVAK. According to Karim Sadjadpour, an Iranian American policy analyst at the Carnegie Endowment, this treatment may have fueled Khamenei’s animosity toward the U.S. And Israel, both of which reportedly supported SAVAK.
The Islamic Revolution transformed Khamenei’s fortunes. With the shah’s overthrow in 1979, Khomeini established an Islamic Republic and rewarded his followers with government positions. Khamenei held several posts, including deputy defense minister, imam for Tehran’s Friday prayers, and supervisor for the Revolutionary Guard. In June 1981, a bomb placed near him during a religious lecture by the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MEK) left him with a permanently injured arm. Later that year, another MEK bombing killed President Mohammad Ali Rajai and other Iranian officials. In the ensuing chaos, revolutionary elites, with Khomeini’s backing, asked Khamenei to run for president, and he won two terms, with 97% and 87% of the vote, respectively.
Succession disarray once again favored Khamenei in 1989. Khomeini dismissed his designated heir, Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri. No other senior cleric was seen as qualified, and a leadership council was rejected. This left Khamenei as the leading candidate, despite not being an ayatollah, as the constitution required. The Assembly of Experts, at Khomeini’s urging, waived the requirement, clearing the way for Khamenei to succeed him. The day after Khomeini’s death, Khamenei was elected supreme leader. “My nomination should produce us all cry tears of blood,” Khamenei said. “I am an individual with many faults and shortcomings and truly a minor seminarian.”
Initially considered an unremarkable man lacking the charisma and religious credentials of his predecessor, Khamenei did not present an ambitious plan for change. However, he soon determined to reshape the economy and create a shadow government, underpinned by his partnership with the Revolutionary Guard, and Basij. By 2013, a Reuters investigation revealed that Khamenei was at the center of an organization called Headquarters for Executing the Order of the Imam, estimated to have holdings of about $95 billion and involved in a wide range of industries. He placed the Revolutionary Guard at the center of his appointments, securing their loyalty and shielding them from calls for reform.
Khamenei leveraged this unprecedented economic and military control to suppress unrest, including the 2019 fuel protests and the 2022 demonstrations following the death of Mahsa Amini while in police custody. Even in his later years, he maintained his harsh rhetoric toward the U.S. And Israel. “We will not surrender to any aggression,” he said after the 2025 attacks. “This represents the logic behind the Iranian nation.”
