Not to be confused with his predecessor, Ruhollah Khomeini.
The Ayatollah Sayyid
Ali Khamenei
علی خامنهای
Khamenei in 2023
2nd Supreme Leader of Iran
Incumbent
Assumed office 4 June 1989 Acting: 4 June 1989 – 6 August 1989[1]
President
Himself
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Mohammad Khatami
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Hassan Rouhani
Ebrahim Raisi
Preceded by
Ruhollah Khomeini
3rd President of Iran
In office 9 October 1981 – 16 August 1989[2]
Prime Minister
Mir-Hossein Mousavi
Supreme Leader
Ruhollah Khomeini Himself
Preceded by
Mohammad-Ali Rajai
Succeeded by
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
1st Chairman of Expediency Discernment Council
In office 7 February 1988 – 4 June 1989
Appointed by
Ruhollah Khomeini
Preceded by
Office established
Succeeded by
Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani
Member of the Assembly of Experts
In office 15 August 1983 – 4 June 1989
Constituency
Tehran Province[3]
Majority
2,800,353 (87.8%)[4]
Member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly
In office 28 May 1980 – 13 October 1981
Constituency
Tehran, Rey and Shemiranat
Majority
1,405,976 (65.8%)[5]
Tehran's Friday Prayer Imam
Incumbent
Assumed office 14 January 1980
Appointed by
Ruhollah Khomeini
Interim Imams
List
Ahmad Jannati Ahmad Khatami Kazem Seddiqi Ali Movahedi-Kermani Mohammad-Hassan Aboutorabi Fard Mohammad Javad Haj Ali Akbari
Preceded by
Hussein-Ali Montazeri
Personal details
Born
Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khameneh[6]
(1939-07-16) 16 July 1939 (age 83)[7] (certificate date)[6] (1939-04-19) 19 April 1939 (age 83) (real date)[8] Mashhad, Khorasan province, Imperial State of Iran
Political party
Independent (since 1989)
Other political affiliations
Islamic Republican Party (1979–1987)
Combatant Clergy Association (1977–1989)[9]
Spouse
Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh
(m. 1964)
Children
Mostafa
Mojtaba
Masoud (aka Mohsen)[10]
Meysam
Hoda
Boshra
Parents
Javad Khamenei
Khadijeh Mirdamadi
Relatives
Mohammad Khamenei (brother)
Hadi Khamenei (brother)
Residence
House of Leadership
Alma mater
Qom Seminary
Signature
Website
english.khamenei.ir
Title
Grand Ayatollah
Personal
Religion
Islam
Denomination
Twelver Shīʿa
Jurisprudence
Ja'fari
Creed
Usuli
Main interest(s)
Uṣūl al-Fiqh, Tafsīr[11]
Notable idea(s)
Fatwa against nuclear weapons
Alma mater
Khorasan Seminary[11]
Najaf Seminary[11]
Qom Seminary[11]
Military career
Allegiance
Iran
Service/branch
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Irregular Warfare Headquarters[12]
Years of service
1979–80; 1980–81
Commands held
Head of Revolutionary Guards[13]
Battles/wars
Iran–Iraq War
Operation Samen-ol-A'emeh[12]
Ali Hosseini Khamenei[6] (Persian: علی حسینی خامنهای, romanized: ʼAlī Ḥosaynī Khāmeneʼī, pronounced [ʔæˈliː hosejˈniː xɒːmeneˈʔiː](listen); born 19 April 1939)[14][15] is a Twelver Shia marja' and the second and current supreme leader of Iran, in office since 1989.[16][17] Previously he served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. Khamenei is 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.[18]
According to his official website, Khamenei was arrested six times before being sent into exile for three years during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign.[19] After the Iranian revolution overthrowing the shah, he was the target of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralysed his right arm.[20][21] Khamenei was one of Iran's leaders during the Iran–Iraq War in the 1980s, and developed close ties with the now powerful 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.[22][23] 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 before dying. Khamenei has been head of the servants of Astan Quds Razavi since 14 April 1979.[24]
As Supreme Leader, Khamenei is the most powerful political authority in the Islamic Republic.[25][26] 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 many fields such as economy, the environment, foreign policy, and national planning in Iran.[27][28][29][30][31][32] 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, according to Karim Sadjadpour.[18] 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.[33] There have also been instances when the Guardian Council reversed its ban on particular people after being ordered to do so by Khamenei.[34]
There have been major protests during Khamenei's reign, including the 1994 Qazvin protests,[35] the 1999 student protests, the 2009 presidential election protests,[36][37][38] the 2011–2012 protests, the 2017–18 protests, the 2018–19 general strikes and protests, the 2019–20 protests, the 2021–22 protests, and the ongoing Mahsa Amini protests. Journalists, bloggers and other individuals have been put on trial in Iran for the charge of insulting Supreme Leader Khamenei, often in conjunction with blasphemy charges. Their sentences have included lashing and jail time; some of them have died in custody.[39][40] 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.
^Entekhab.ir, پایگاه خبری تحلیلی انتخاب. "توضیحات مجلس خبرگان درباره جلسه انتخاب آیتالله خامنهای به عنوان رهبر در سال 68/ آیتالله گلپایگانی فقط 14 رای داشت". پایگاه خبری تحلیلی انتخاب – Entekhab.ir.
^"letter to Hashemi Rafsanjani and resignation from presidency" (in Persian). Khamenei.ir. 16 August 1989. Retrieved 17 July 2018.
^"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
^"چه کسی در نخستین انتخابات خبرگان اول شد؟ +جدول". 7 January 2014. Archived from the original on 10 October 2017.
^"Parliament members" (in Persian). Iranian Majlis. Archived from the original on 7 July 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
^ abc"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.
^"تصویری از شناسنامه حضرت آیتالله خامنهای".
^"روایتی از تاریخ دقیق تولد رهبر انقلاب از زبان معظمله+عکس". مشرق نیوز. 16 April 2016.
^"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.
^ abcdCite error: The named reference cgie was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ abRaee, 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.
^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
^"Ali Khamenei". CGIE (fa).
^"taking look at the biography of Ali Khamenei". khamenei (fa). 21 March 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2014.
^"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.
^"Profile: Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei". BBC News. 17 June 2009. Archived from the original on 26 March 2009. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
^ ab"The Supreme Leader – The Iran Primer". 2 October 2010. Archived from the original on 30 June 2016. Retrieved 1 July 2016.
^"Khamenei.ir". Archived from the original on 12 November 2013.
^Khamenei has kept a low profile[permanent dead link] Agence France Presse, 20 June 2009. Retrieved 24 September 2009.[dead link]
^Maziar Bahari (6 April 2007). "How Khamenei Keeps Control". Newsweek. Archived from the original on 25 October 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2010.
^"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.
^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)
^"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.
^"Profile: Iran's 'unremarkable' supreme leader Khamenei". BBC News. 4 August 2011. Archived from the original on 18 February 2012.
^Ganji, Akbar, "The Latter-Day Sultan: Power and Politics in Iran", Foreign Affairs, November December 2008
^"Iran's Khamenei hits out at Rafsanjani in rare public rebuke". Middle East Eye. Archived from the original on 4 April 2016.
^"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.
^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.
^"IranWire – Asking for a Miracle: Khamenei's Economic Plan". Archived from the original on 7 March 2016.
^"Khamenei outlines 14-point plan to increase population". 22 May 2014. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 21 May 2017.
^"Iran: Executive, legislative branch officials endorse privatization plan". Archived from the original on 5 January 2017.
^"Rafsanjani breaks taboo over selection of Iran's next supreme leader". The Guardian. 14 December 2015. Archived from the original on 18 December 2016.
^"Iran reverses ban on reformist candidates". The Guardian. 24 May 2005. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016.
^"The Basij Mostazafan – A culture of martyrdom and death". Al Arabiya. 6 December 2016. Archived from the original on 7 December 2016.
^"Khamenei was the victim of an attempted assassination". LinkDay. Archived from the original on 11 October 2016.
^"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.
^"Several killed, 300 arrested in Tehran protests". CNN. Archived from the original on 31 December 2009.
^"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.).
^"IRAN 2016 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT" (PDF). United States State Department.
Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: سید مصطفی حسینی خامنهای; born c. 1965) is an Iranian Twelver Shia cleric and the oldest son of Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei...
Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: سید مجتبی حسینی خامنهای; born 8 September 1969) is an Iranian Shia cleric and son of AliKhamenei, the Supreme Leader...
the third son of Iran’s supreme leader, AliKhamenei; and is the brother of Mostafa, Mojtaba and Meitham. Khamenei also has the title of “Hujjatul-Islam”...
An assassination attempt on AliKhamenei occurred on 27 June 1981. When he gave the speech for prayers at the Abuzar Mosque, a bomb in the tape recorder...
This is a bibliography of the works of AliKhamenei (Persian: کتابشناسی تألیفات سید علی خامنهای), Iran's supreme leader. Generally, his works can be...
daughter (Badri Khamenei) and four sons (Mohammad Khamenei, AliKhamenei, Hadi Khamenei and Mohammad Hassan Khamenei). Javad Khamenei died on 5 July 1986...
Badri Hosseini Khamenei (Persian: بدری حسینی خامنهای) is a sister of Ayatollah AliKhamenei. In 1985, in the middle of the Iraq-Iran war, she illegally...
parliament, Commander-in-Chief during the Iran–Iraq War, President, and chose AliKhamenei as the supreme leader of Iran. His powerful role and control over Iranian...
Mohammad Khamenei (Persian: سید محمد خامنهای, born 25 December 1935) is an Iranian cleric and politician. He is the older brother of AliKhamenei, the current...
Shia Islam, Ali ibn Husayn Zayn al-Abidin (Persian/Arabic: علی بن حسین، زین العابدین) (known as Imam Sajjad) — according to the "Khamenei family tree"...
traditionalists in parliament and the Revolutionary Guard and with Supreme Leader AliKhamenei, over his dismissal of intelligence minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i...
He was followed by King Salman of Saudi Arabia Iranian Supreme Leader AliKhamenei and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. King Abdullah II of Jordan...
held on June 4, 1989, the morning after Ruhollah Khomeini's death and AliKhamenei was elected as his successor with 60 votes out of 74. Because of a conflict...
of Raisi, who is considered an ally of AliKhamenei. Raisi is often seen as a frontrunner to succeed Khamenei as Supreme Leader. Considered a hardliner...
was taken up by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–1988. He was succeeded by AliKhamenei on 4 June 1989. Khomeini was born in Khomeyn, in what is now Iran's Markazi...
executive branches (article 57). The current lifetime officeholder, AliKhamenei, has issued decrees and made the final decisions on the economy, the...
authority vested in an autocratic "Supreme Leader"; a position held by AliKhamenei since Khomeini's death in 1989. The Iranian government is authoritarian...
representing a district in Tehran. Khamenei is the younger brother of Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah AliKhamenei, with whom he disagrees and from whom...
Mohammad Javad Bahonar, Mohammad Beheshti, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, AliKhamenei, and Abdolkarim Mousavi-Ardabili. Early members of the central committee...
August 1997 under Prime Minister Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Presidents AliKhamenei and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. He is the first and only person to have...
cities and towns, and at 132 universities. Supreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamenei dismissed the widespread unrest not only as "riots" but also as a “hybrid...
نشده از سفر حضرت آیت الله خامنهای به کره شمالی در زمان ریاست جمهوری IMAM KHAMENEI Visit To North Korea When HE Was President Of IRAN - all languages...
reports to the Supreme Leader. The current long-time Supreme Leader AliKhamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made...
Friday prayers held in Tehran by AliKhamenei can be seen as a proof of growing sectarian tone within the regime. Khamenei's speeches are extremely political...