page_title: Ali Khamenei
section_title: Foreign policy
hierarchical_section_title: Ali Khamenei / Foreign policy
caption_attribution_description: English: Ayatollah Khamenei meets Vladimir Putin on November 23, 2015.
context_page_description: Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei is a Twelver Shia Marja' and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran, in office since 1989. He was previously 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.
  According to his official website, Khamenei was arrested six times before being sent into exile for three years during Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's reign. After the Islamic revolution overthrowing the shah, he was the target of an attempted assassination in June 1981 that paralysed his right arm. 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 used to suppress opposition to him. Khamenei served as the third President of Iran from 1981 to 1989, while becoming a close ally of the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini.
context_section_description: Khamenei has "direct responsibility" for foreign policy, which "cannot be conducted without his direct involvement and approval". He has a foreign policy team independent of the president's "which includes two former foreign ministers" and "can at any time of his choosing inject himself into the process and 'correct' a flawed policy or decision." His foreign policy is said to steer a course that avoids either confrontation or accommodation with the West.
  Khamenei condemned the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen and compared Saudi Arabia to Israel.
  Khamenei condemned the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar and called Myanmar's de facto leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung Sang Suu Kyi a "brutal woman".
  U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo criticized Khamenei for his refusal to condemn the Xinjiang re-education camps and human rights abuses against the Uyghur Muslim minority in China.
caption: Khamenei in meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, 23 November 2015
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