One of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's main life goals was to see the end of the state of Israel.  Over and over again, Khamenei would speak of Israel being "illegitimate" and pledge Iran's support to the "liberation of Palestine."

As the ideological head of the so-called "Axis of Resistance," Khamenei created a lose military alliance with armed groups in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, Yemen and the Palestinian territories. The main goal of the alliance was to destroy Israel.

But the Axis grew increasingly wobbly following the terror attacks committed by Hamas against Israel in October 2023. The Israeli military reacted with massive strikes of its own — not only against Hamas in Gaza, but also against targets in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and eventually Iran.

Khamenei survived the attacks in June 2025, but just hours after the massive attacks by the United States and Israel on February 28, 2026, Iranian authorities announced the Iranian supreme leader's death.

Ayatollah as 'representative of God'

The price for Khamenei's ideologically fueled policy of confrontation was paid mostly by the Iranian people. They had to deal with international sanctions, a faltering economy and increasing political isolation before eventually finding themselves in the crosshairs of the escalating regional conflict.

Despite this downward spiral, it would appear that Khamenei never questioned his mission as "representative of God on Earth." He assumed this title in 1989 after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and thus became the head of state for life.

Born in 1939 in Mashhad, a holy city for Shiites in northeastern Iran, Khamenei had the final say in all state affairs for more than three decades.

He did not like people asking questions about his decisions. He never gave interviews. In 2018, a student was sentenced to two years in prison for "insulting the religious leader" after he asked Khamenei in front of cameras whether the supreme leader could be asked questions at all.

Opposing the Shah and rise after 1979

Khamenei viewed himself as a poet and literary critic until his death. He wrote poetry in his youth. Before the Islamic Revolution of 1979, he had been imprisoned several times for opposing the then-ruling Shah. As a pipe-smoking literary figure, the young religious scholar made a rather meek impression among regime-critical intellectuals.

After the toppling of the monarchy and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei quickly rose through the ranks of the theocracy.

He was articulate and became a Friday preacher in Tehran. In 1981, he survived an assassination attempt by a resistance group known as the People's Mujahideen, though the attack left his right hand paralyzed. 

Khamenei learned to write with his left hand. Later, he rose to become a member of the inner leadership circle of the religious establishment.

He held the office of president from 1981 to 1989, a period that also saw the Iraq-Iran Gulf War (1980-87), which resulted in heavy losses for both sides.

Khamenei's pillar of strength

Khamenei once said that he knew how it felt to live under a dictator and to be subjected to terror. He was referring to the time under the Shah, but ignored the massive human rights violations that happened under his own leadership.

Khamenei's main support base was the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a paramilitary organization established in 1979 to "protect the revolution."

Under his watch, the IRGC expanded greatly to become what many regard as the nation's dominant military force, with its own army, navy and air force as well as its own intelligence wing and special units for foreign missions.

The IRGC, which also controls parts of Iran's oil and gas industry through its construction group Khatam al-Anbiya, is a state within a state and has been designated a terrorist organization by the EU. The paramilitary force enables the supreme leader to impose his will, bypassing the president and parliament.

US is Iran's 'number one enemy'

Khamenei maintained a modest lifestyle throughout his life, even though he let those around him benefit from the nation's corrupt economic system.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, his closest advisers had promised to develop Iranian vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The project gobbled up about $1 billion (€910 million), but failed to produce a vaccine.

In the eyes of millions of Iranians who lost loved ones during the pandemic, Khamenei was responsible for the disastrous management of the health crisis. He alleged that the novel coronavirus was a US biological weapon that had been genetically modified to attack Iran. Doubling down on this stance, he banned the Iranian government from importing vaccines developed in the US and Britain.

Ayatollah Khamenei saw the Islamic Republic as the only true force of resistance against the "imperialist" West, and he dreamt of a powerful Shiite Iran in the Islamic world. His speeches were peppered with the term enemy, and the main enemy was always the United States.

"America is the number one enemy of our nation," he always said.

Iran's controversial nuclear and missile programs were founded under his leadership. The fact that he banned the production and use of nuclear weapons with a fatwa, an Islamic legal opinion, did not convince anyone on the international stage. He allowed negotiations on limiting Iran's nuclear program only after Iran had acquired enough experience and knowledge to be able to ramp up this program again at any time.

Brutal suppression of women and resistance

Regular protests across Iran for greater political and social freedoms were brutally put down under his rule, as was unrest caused by economic misery. The repression of women also reached a new scale under Khamenei. Meanwhile, the emigration of young talent and academics hit an all-time high. All hope for change and lasting reforms within Iran's existing political system were dashed with him in control.

As Khamenei grew older, he became more unforgiving and resentful; his trusted circle grew ever smaller. Nothing that displeased him should exist. His critics — and not just them — doubted whether he actually knew how unhappy people were with the political system, how much trust had been lost in the religious authorities, how economically and socially difficult people's lives were. He showed no interest in dialogue with the population.

This article was originally written in German. It was revised on March 2 to add details about Khamenei's hostility towards Israel and his role in the so-called "Axis of Resistance."