Ali Khamenei

**Ali Hosseini Khamenei** (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian cleric and politician who served as the second Supreme Leader of Iran from 1989 until 2026 when he was killed during the 2026 US–Israeli strikes. Khamenei held the record for being 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.

## Early life
Ali Hosseini Khamenei was born on 19 April 1939 in Mashhad. He was the second of eight children. Two of his brothers are also Shia clerics. His father was an ethnic Azerbaijani Turk from Khamaneh. His mother was an ethnic Persian from Yazd.

## Political career
Khamenei's career began as an opposition activist against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. He was arrested six times before being exiled for three years by the Shah's regime. Khamenei was an important figure in the Iranian Revolution and after the revolution became successful, had many government roles in the 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 was the 3rd President of Iran from 1981 to 1989 during the Iran–Iraq War. During this time, he grew close 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.

### Supreme Leader
During his time as supreme leader, Khamenei supported Iran's nuclear program for civilian use while giving out a fatwa against the making of weapons of mass destruction. Khamenei supported economic privatization of state-owned businesses and, with oil and gas reserves, helped make Iran into an energy superpower.

His foreign policy focused on Shia Islamism and supporting the Islamic Revolution. Khamenei played an important role in the creation of the IRGC. Under Khamenei, Iran supported the "Axis of Resistance" coalition in the Syrian civil war, War in Iraq, Yemeni civil war and the Gaza war, as well as Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war. 

He was a well known critic of Israel and of Zionism. Khamenei supported the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. He supported the idea of Israel's being destroyed. Under Khamenei, Iran had bad relations with the United States and took part in proxy wars with Israel and Saudi Arabia.

In 2025 and 2026, problems with Israel and the United States grew into the Twelve-Day War and an ongoing conflict.

## Personal life
Khamenei was married to Mansoureh Khojasteh Bagherzadeh. They had six children; four sons (Mostafa, Mojtaba, Masoud, and Meysam) and two daughters (Boshra and Hoda). He had three brothers, including Mohammad Khamenei and Hadi Khamenei. One of his four sisters, Badri Khamenei, wife of dissident Ali Tehrani, fled into exile in the 1980s.

## Assassination
At 01:15 ET 28 February 2026, a series of large-scale US and Israeli missile strikes were carried out against targets in Iran.

At 14:48 ET on the same day Reuters published a report of an unnamed Israeli official who claimed Khamenei's dead body had been found. Iranian state TV on 1 March 2026 confirmed Khamenei's death at around 5am IRST.  Khamanei was reported to have been killed while in his office.

## Notes 
## References 
## Other websites
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* The Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran
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