Ali Khamenei

Ali Khamenei      ( Imam,  religious leader)
Born	Sayyed Ali Hosseini Khameneh 17 July 1939  Mashhad,  Khorasan,  Iran
Died	28 February 2026 (Age 86)
Alma mater	Qom Seminary
Religion	Islam
Parents	•  Javad Khamenei •  Khadijeh Mirdamadi
Children	•  Mostafa •  Mojtaba •  Masoud •  Meysam •  Hoda •  Boshra
Spouse	Khojaste Bagherzadeh
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Octogenarian Supreme Leader of Iran assassinated in 2026 by US and Israel  Supreme Leader of Iran In office 4 June 1989 - 28 February 2026 Preceded by Ruhollah Khomeini  President of Iran In office 13 October 1981 - 3 August 1989  Member of the Assembly of Experts In office 15 August 1983 - 21 February 1991  Member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly In office 28 May 1980 - 13 October 1981  Chairman of Expediency Discernment Council In office 7 February 1988 - 4 June 1989

Ali Hosseini Khamenei was the second Supreme Leader of Iran, in office from 1989 until his assassination on 28 February 2026 by the US and Israeli military. He was previously President of Iran from 1981 to 1989.

Ali Khamenei's tenure as Supreme Leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East at the time of his death. He held the title of Ayatollah and was considered one of the world's leading maraji' of Twelver Shi'ism. .

Background

Born into the Khamenei family, he studied at a hawza in his hometown of Mashhad, later settling in Qom in 1958, where he attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei became involved in opposition to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and was arrested six times before being exiled for three years by the Shah's regime. Khamenei was a mainstream figure in the Iranian Revolution, and upon its success, held many posts in the newly established Islamic republic.

In the aftermath of the revolution, he was the target of an attempted assassination that paralysed his right arm. There had been continued assassination threats against Khamenei by Israel. Khamenei served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 during the Iran–Iraq War, when he also developed close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

After the death and state funeral of Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei was elected supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts. During the deliberations, Khamenei expressed reservations about his religious qualifications and suitability for the position. As opposed to his predecessor, who held the rank of Grand Ayatollah, Khamenei was then a mid-ranking cleric and did not meet the constitutional requirement of marja'. The constitution was subsequently amended to remove that requirement, and the Assembly reconfirmed his leadership later that year.

Supreme Leader

As Supreme Leader, Khamenei supported Iran's nuclear program for civilian use while issuing a fatwa forbidding the production of weapons of mass destruction and promoted scientific and technological development despite international sanctions. Khamenei favoured economic privatisation of state-owned industries and, with oil and gas reserves, transformed Iran into an energy superpower. His foreign policy centered on Shia Islamism and exporting the Islamic Revolution, as well as countering the United States and Israel through indirect conflict.

Khamenei played a pivotal role in the development of the IRGC, transforming it into a primary tool for domestic control and regional influence. Under Khamenei, Iran supported the "Axis of Resistance" coalition in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen and in Gaza, as well as supporting Russia against Ukraine. A staunch opponent of Israel and of Zionism, Khamenei supported Hamas in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He also supported Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen. In 2025 and 2026, tensions with Israel and the United States escalated into the Twelve-Day War and the 2026 Iran war, during the latter of which Khamenei was assassinated on the first day.

Warning against tainted Western Vaccines

"Importing vaccines made in the US or the UK is prohibited. They're completely untrustworthy. It's not unlikely they would want to contaminate other nations. Given our experience with France's HIV-tainted blood supplies, French vaccines aren't trustworthy either," Khamenei said in a tweet on January 8, 2021.

The tweet was from a longer address, where Khamenei also said "I really don't trust them. Sometimes they want to test the vaccine on other nations." However, he also said that the Iranian government is allowed to supply the COVID vaccine from other, reliable sources.

Twitter promptly banned him from the social network, stating the message was no longer available because it violated the Twitter rules, which prohibits "vaccine misinformation"

The Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) stated the import of American Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines had been cancelled because of this. In December 2020, the IRCS head Karim Hemmati said that the organisation was planning to take delivery of a batch of 150,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines produced by Pfizer Inc.

 

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