Ali Khamenei, the guardian of the essence of the Iranian regime
The supreme leader is believed to have died in the attack after 40 years in power with an iron fist.
BarcelonaOver the years and decades, the Iranian regime has gradually withered away, as has its last guardian, Ali Khamenei, the eternal Supreme Leader who ruled the Persian giant with an iron fist for four decades. A faithful disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini, the architect of the Iranian theocracy, the veteran Shiite cleric had never been willing to compromise on the ideological and identity-based pillars of the Islamic Republic. Eliminating him had become an obsession for Israel and the American right wing. Iran confirmed early this morning that he was killed in Saturday's joint US-Israeli attack; he was 86 years old.
Khamenei, born in 1939 into a religious family, had held several positions of responsibility in the Ayatollahs' regime since his birth. The ayatollah, trained in Islamic theology under Khomeini's tutelage, served as deputy defense minister in the early years of the Islamic Republic. Shortly after surviving a 1981 assassination attempt that left him paralyzed from the waist down in his right arm, he was Khomeini's candidate in that year's presidential elections, which he won by a landslide. Khamenei held the presidency for eight years, during which he displayed unwavering loyalty to Khomeini, the Supreme Leader.
Loyalty without religious credentials
It was precisely this quality, more than his mediocre religious credentials, that led Khomeini to choose him as his successor at the top of the Islamic Republic. In fact, to enable his rise, the country's Constitution had to be amended, which stipulated that obtaining the highest qualification as a theologian was a requirement for the supreme office. This deficiency, as well as his lackluster public image, has earned him numerous critics within the Islamic Republic.establishmentIranian political and religious figure. For example, his clashes with Presidents Rafsanjani and Khatami, who wanted to introduce liberalizing changes to the system, were public and notorious.
Well protected by the Revolutionary Guard, the regime's fanatical praetorian guard, Khamenei prevailed in all these conflicts, and many of his adversaries ended up in prison or under house arrest. He also showed no mercy when ordering the repression of the various waves of popular protests that have shaken the country since 2009, demanding profound political changes.
His inflexible nature was also evident in his hostility toward the US and Israel, whom he considered non-negotiable enemies of the regime. Thus, the slogans "Death to America" and "Death to Israel" have never disappeared from the choreographed official demonstrations and celebrations. However, aware of the dangers of total war against his enemies, he had occasionally shown signs of pragmatism, such as signing the 2015 agreement with the Obama administration that placed limits on Iran's nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. In fact, Khamenei even signed a fatwa, or religious edict, condemning the possession of nuclear weapons.
Thismodus vivendiThe system, which relied on maintaining a kind of Cold War with the US, propped up by a network of allied militias throughout the region, collapsed after Hamas's attacks on October 7. With Israel poised to assert its regional hegemony and Donald Trump enamored with a more ruthless imperialism, the rules of the game changed, and last summer's war revealed that Tehran's grandiose rhetoric rested on a fragile military power. The question now is whether the Iranian regime can survive it or if it will be the last supreme leader.