Ali Khamenei used to be born in Mashhad, Iran, in 1939, as the second one son of an area spiritual chief, Javad Khamenei, and he grew up in relative poverty.
He discovered to learn the Qur’an in early youth ahead of attending a theological seminary college in Mashhad. At 18, he travelled to Najaf in central Iraq to review Shia jurisprudence, however used to be later requested by way of his father to go back. He used to be a scholar of Ayatollah Hossein Borujerdi and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
There isn’t a lot recognized about Khamenei’s circle of relatives existence, apart from that he’s married and has six youngsters. Khamenei’s hobby in poetry is a well known a part of his public personality. He continuously cites poems in his speeches and hosts poetry gatherings the place pro-government poets accumulate to learn their poems to obtain his feedback. Khamenei’s hobby in literature is slightly uncommon amongst spiritual clerics. The similar is going for his hobby in gardening.
Within the Nineteen Sixties and Seventies Khamenei used to be serious about protests in opposition to the US-backed monarchy (the shah), and used to be an ardent supporter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, then dwelling in exile, and in opposition to the “westernisation” of Iran. This ended in his arrest by way of the shah’s secret police and intelligence operation, the Organisation of Nationwide Safety and Knowledge (Savak), which suppressed opposition to the shah.
Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, the monarch who dominated Iran till 1979, used to be subsidized by way of western powers together with america and the United Kingdom. After a decade of financial expansion in Iran, principally in response to oil revenues, didn’t result in an development in the usual of dwelling for abnormal Iranians, a mixture of scholars, intellectuals and clerics created blended beef up for a revolution.
After the shah used to be overthrown within the 1979 revolution, Iran changed into an Islamic republic. Khamenei used to be appointed as a member of the Islamic Progressive Council, which used to be installed position to regulate the revolution, and served as deputy defence minister and led Friday prayers in Tehran, which used to be thought to be extremely prestigious.
The brand new republic followed an anti-western “imperialist” overseas coverage. That is referred to as “global arrogance” (Estekbar Jahani) in Iranian post-revolutionary discourse.
In 1982, he used to be elected president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, profitable 95% of the vote, after the former president, Mohammad Ali Rajai, used to be killed in a bomb assault in Tehran. Khamenei have been the objective of an assassination try two months previous, leaving him with critical accidents and paralysis in his proper arm.
Iran’s ideally suited leaders reacts to air moves by way of Israel and US rhetoric.
Iran’s conflict with neighbouring Iraq, led by way of Saddam Hussein, lasted from 1980 to 1988 and is understood in Iran because the “sacred defence”. The conflict started after an invasion by way of Iraqi troops on Iranian territory and ended in round 1,000,000 deaths throughout each international locations.
This used to be every other vital length in Khamenei’s occupation. He used to be lively in managing Iran’s defence because the chairman of the ideally suited council of conflict beef up all through this era. The council used to be shaped to verify the rustic used to be as ready as imaginable all through the conflict and to take measures to mobilise forces and to satisfy the desires of the conflict on the battlefront.
He additionally commanded the Islamic Progressive Guard Corps, an elite a part of the Iranian defense force, from 1981. On the finish of the conflict, Khamenei claimed Iran had gained a “luminous victory”.
He praised Khomeini for his ways within the conflict and mentioned that the ideally suited chief had realised from the very starting that it used to be no longer an abnormal struggle between two neighbours. “He recognised the enemy and realised that the main enemy is not present in the war, and he recognised that Saddam is just a tool.”
He went on to indicate that this used to be a conflict about US regional energy and that Saddam Hussein would proceed to obtain US beef up.
Emerging to ideally suited management
Khamenei changed into ideally suited chief in 1989 after the demise of Khomeini. He used to be designated as the brand new chief by way of the Meeting of Mavens, an 88-member frame of Islamic clerics. He dominated in the similar taste, and with the similar form of overseas coverage, as his predecessor; on the lookout for allies to offset US energy within the area.
The tasks designated for the rahbar (ideally suited chief) are indexed in Article 101 of the charter and vary from figuring out the political path of the federal government (in session with an advisory committee) to commanding the defense force to stating conflict, peace, and the mobilisation of defense force to pardoning or commuting sentences upon advice of the top of the judiciary.
Khomeini’s conception of Islamic authorities used to be centred at the doctrine of the guardianship of “the jurist”, referred to as velayat-e faqih, and this persevered on the center of the federal government that adopted beneath Khamenei. This offers the ideally suited chief in depth powers, together with keep an eye on over the army, judiciary and media.
This doctrine performs an important position in legitimising theocratic energy in Iran, linking spiritual authority with the state. Dialogue about velayat-e faqih continues inside of Iranian society as a part of an ongoing discussion between conventional spiritual authority and civil society.
The query of who may come to energy after Khamenei used to be raised all through the grassroots rebellion and pro-democracy protests round Iran in 2022 and 2023. It used to be anticipated that any transition would take a large amount of time, particularly if the purpose used to be for a extra democratic type of authorities.
The present conflict may counsel a special result. Even supposing the Israeli assaults on Iran have once more sparked dialogue of a imaginable trade of chief, the general public is targeted now on their very own protection, and protecting Iran, no longer on political trade.
Any exterior conflict or threats coming from out of doors Iran has traditionally united Iranians in opposition to aggressors. Which means the trail to democratic trade isn’t prone to be created, or helped, by way of Israeli air moves or US threats.
