Ali Khamenei was one of the few world leaders who made no trips abroad during his leadership and never interviewed any media, whether domestic or foreign. Critics say he considered himself beyond wanting to be accountable to anyone.
He was at the apex of power from the beginning of the revolution and eventually took the helm of guiding the country for years after the death of Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Khamenei had the final say in foreign policy, and his hostility to the United States made it impossible for any Iranian official to imagine a resumption of political relations between Tehran and Washington.
Khamenei, from birth to entry into the world of politics
TL;DR: His father was named Javad and was born in Najaf, but as a child he first went to Tabriz with his family, where he studied religious sciences until completion of the level course, and then migrated to Mashhad.
Sayyed Ali Khamenei, was born on April 29, 1918 in Mashhad. His father was named Javad and was born in Najaf, but as a child he first went to Tabriz with his family, where he studied religious sciences until completion of the level course, and then migrated to Mashhad. He died of a heart attack in July 1985.
His mother was also named “Khadija Mirdamadi”, who died on August 15, 1988, the same day that her son officially became the leader of Persia.
Ali Khamenei was the second child of the family, he had 3 brothers named Mohammad, Ali, Hadi, Hassan and 1 sister named Badri, who is the wife of Sheikh Ali Tehrani.
The second leader of the Islamic Republic started his religious studies in Mashhad and studied briefly at the seminary in Najaf in 1936, but returned to Mashhad less than 1 year later and studied at the seminary of Qom a little later. He was then a disciple of Hossein Ali Montazeri, a professor who was placed in the household palace many years later at the behest of his disciple.
It was during these years that he became interested in political issues. In 1341, after the controversy over the bill of state and provincial associations and the White Revolution referendum of the Shah and the nation, Ali Khamenei was commissioned by Ayatollah Milani to bring reports on Mashhad public opinion to Ruhollah Khomeini in Qom. It was Ali Khamenei's first political contact with Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran's next two leaders.
This connection became more widespread day by day. In 1342 and on the eve of Ashura, Ruhollah Khomeini gives him a mission to deliver messages to Ayatollah Milani in Mashhad.
It was around the same times that Ali Khamenei is arrested for the first time. Only three days before the arrest of Ruhollah Khomeini on June 15, 1982, he was arrested by Shahrbani, who had gone to Birjand, but after the events of June 15 they transferred him to Mashhad, he spent a total of 10 days in detention and then released.
He was repeatedly detained before the victory of the revolution.
Nevertheless, his antigovernment activities continued. He was later exiled to Jireff and Iranshahr, where he remained in exile until July 1357.
A month before the revolution, namely on 22 January 1957, he was elected by Ruhollah Khomeini as a member of the Revolutionary Council, where besides him Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Beheshti, Morteza Motahari, Mohammad Javad Bahonar and Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardabili were also present. That membership marked the beginning of Ali Khamenei's influential role making in the government that was created a month later.
Fall of Shah, rise of star Iqbal Khamenei
TL;DR: After the fall of the Shah's government, the Revolutionary Council assumed the role of law-making in the country's new political system.
After the fall of the Shah's government, the Revolutionary Council assumed the role of law-making in the country's new political system. The council was later merged into the interim government, but after the abdication of Mehdi Bazargan, the interim prime minister took over the de facto administration of the country. Finally, the Revolutionary Council ended its work after the formation of the First Assembly.
But this was just the beginning of Khamenei's ascent in the arena of power. He was initially appointed deputy of the Ministry of Defence during the period when Mehdi Chamran was minister, and at the same time headed the Guards. Mr. Khamenei made his way to Parliament in the first elections to the Islamic State Assembly as a representative from a Tehran constituency.
But perhaps one of his most important roles in the Islamic Republic's power ring was his appointment as Tehran's Friday imam by Ruhollah Khomeini. From January 1958 until the end of his leadership period, he remained Imam Juma of Tehran, and during this period he has held Friday prayers nearly 250 times. Although during his leadership period, he rarely appeared at Friday prayers.
Young Khamenei surviving a bomb attack
TL;DR: The bomb was embedded in a tape recorder and placed on the podium on the left close to Khamenei's heart, but moments before the explosion Khamenei's bodyguard moved the tape recorder and placed it on the right.
Ali Khamenei was targeted twice. For the first time on 6, July, 1960, exactly one day before the bombing of the Islamic Republic Party building and a week after Abul Hassan Bani Sadr was deposed from the Jamanhuri directorate, he was giving a speech at the Abu Zar Mosque in Tehran when a spectacular explosion rocked the site, Khamenei was seriously injured and taken to hospital.
The bombing was attributed to the Furqan group. The bomb was embedded in a tape recorder and placed on the podium on the left close to Khamenei's heart, but moments before the explosion Khamenei's bodyguard moved the tape recorder and placed it on the right.
Although Khamenei survived the attack, his right hand was permanently disabled.
The second attack took place on 24, March, 1983, when Khamenei was attending Friday prayers at Tehran University. THE BOMB WAS EMBEDDED IN THE APRON OF FRIDAY PRAYERS AND DID NOT INJURE MR KHAMENEI, BUT IN THE PROCESS 14 PEOPLE WERE KILLED AND 88 INJURED. Nevertheless, he continued his prayers and he did not leave the place.
The blast was carried out by the MEK.
Khamenei on president's cassation
TL;DR: Although it is said that Ruhollah Khomeini did not agree with the presence of a cleric in the presidential predicate, he eventually agreed with the decision of the Islamic Republic Party.
Soon after the assassination of incumbent President Mohammad Rajai on September 8, 1960, the Islamic Republic Party, which had become the most powerful governmental establishment, supported Ali Khamenei's candidacy in the presidential election.
Although it is said that Ruhollah Khomeini did not agree with the presence of a cleric in the presidential predicate, he eventually agreed with the decision of the Islamic Republic Party. The elections were held on 10, October, 1960, in which Mr. Khamenei was elected with more than 95 percent of the vote, becoming the third president of Iran.
Despite his top votes, Khamenei's relationship with parliament was not so warm. After taking the presidential oath, he introduced Ali Akbar Velayati as a prime ministerial option to the parliament but did not bring a vote.
He is then inevitably introduced to Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was greeted by MPs and voted in as prime minister.
The differences between Khamenei and Mousavi led him to decide not to participate in the elections of '64, but Khomeini considered his presence in the election a “sharia assignment” and he once again participated in the elections.
Some reports suggest that he considered attendance at the election conditional on being able to freely choose a prime minister, but after the election Khomeini did not call a change of prime minister “expedient” and urged Khamenei to keep Mir Hossein Mousavi in the side. Khamenei considered Mir Hossein Mousavi an imposed prime minister, who enjoyed Khomeini's support. The deep discord of the two also goes back to the same time.
Khamenei was Iran's president for a total of seven years, seven years full of crises, from political disagreements among revolutionary groups to daily terrors of opposition groups and, most importantly, war.
On the way to leadership
TL;DR: The council, of which Khamenei was the first vice chairman, made changes to the constitution, the most important of which was to change the terms of the leadership.
Hossein Ali Montazeri's ouster from the leadership position, disputes within the government, whether between the president and the prime minister, between the parliament and the Guardian Council, and other legislative vacuums prompted Ruhollah Khomeini to appoint a 20-member delegation, including Ali Khamenei, to revise the constitution on May 4, 1988.
The council, of which Khamenei was the first vice chairman, made changes to the constitution, the most important of which was to change the terms of the leadership.
Among them, the condition of the authority for the leader envisaged in the first constitution of the Islamic Republic was removed. Another important change was the removal of the Leadership Council from the fifth principle of the new constitution.
In this way the way was opened for the leadership of Ali Khamenei, who was not a reference to imitation at the time.
63 days to permanent leadership
TL;DR: On 14, June, 1988, shortly after the end of the war and before the draft new constitution was put to a referendum, Ruhollah Khomeini died.
On 14, June, 1988, shortly after the end of the war and before the draft new constitution was put to a referendum, Ruhollah Khomeini died.
The Assembly of Experts rushed to convene a meeting and elected Ali Khamenei as leader the same day.
The first proposal put forward for the leadership to have a condition of authority was “Ayatollah Safi Golpaygani”, which was opposed by members of the experts. The second option was the formation of a leadership council attended by Mousavi Erbili, Ali Meshkini and Ali Khamenei, whose proposal also failed to win the necessary votes.
Eventually Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who chaired the meeting, seized the initiative and, quoting a memoir by Ruhollah Khomeini, presented Ali Khamenei as his preferred option.
He said: “In a meeting attended by the chiefs of the three branches and some gentlemen, the service of the Imam came and we expressed our concern about the leadership vacuum after Mr. Montazeri was deposed by them, the Imam said: There is no leadership vacuum, you have people. We said, “Who?” they said in the presence of Mr. Khamenei, “This is Mr. Khamenei.”
Mr Hashemi's efforts at the meeting drew members' comments to the incumbent president, and even though Mr Khamenei did not agree with his leadership but more than 80 per cent of participants voted yes to his “interim leadership.”
The new constitution was put to a referendum on August 6th and put to a vote thus removing legal obstacles to Khamenei's permanent leadership. Less than ten days after the constitutional referendum, the Assembly of Experts convened a session once again and elected Ali Khamenei as Iran's second leader.
During more than three decades of leadership, Ali Khamenei upset the balance between the various institutions of the system by gradually concentrating power in the institution of leadership. Governments and chambers, even when elected by a high vote, lost their executive and decision-making roles, and the main centers of decision-making were shifted to a limited, unelected circle.
At the same time, security and military institutions, especially the IRGC, found an increasing presence in politics, the economy and the media, a trend that, according to critics, undermined both healthy economic competitiveness and made the country's political atmosphere more secure and closed.
Having experienced a reform government, Khamenei virtually blocked the path to political reform from within the system. DEALING HARD WITH THE GREEN MOVEMENT, LIMITING ELECTORAL RIVALRIES AND ELIMINATING OR MARGINALIZING MIDDLE-CLASS FACES, CONVEYED THE MESSAGE TO SOCIETY THAT PEACEFUL CHANGE IS NOT POSSIBLE. The result of this approach was a decline in political participation, the accumulation of social discontent, and the more radicalization of the protests in the following years; protests that no longer contemplated reform, but fundamental change.
In the foreign policy arena, too, the continued emphasis on the Takabali approach and the slogan of “resistance” imposed heavy costs on the country without designing a concrete exit strategy.
Continued tensions with the US and the West exposed Iran to extensive and eroding sanctions, the consequences of which directly affected the economy and people's daily lives.
Alongside these, the growing gap between sovereignty and society, particularly the younger generations, was another legacy of Khamenei's era of leadership; a generation whose cultural, social and economic demands were often ignored and responded to with security language.
Curated by Marcus Thompson
