Tehran: Born in the north-eastern city of Mashhad in 1939, the son of a religious scholar, Ali Khamenei, joined the religious opposition movement of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1962.
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, Ali Khamenei became deputy defence minister and helped organise the Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC).
When Khomeini died in June 1989, the Assembly of Experts – a council of clerics – chose Ali Khamenei to be the new supreme leader, changing the constitution to allow him to take charge even though he had not achieved the required rank among Shia clerics.
Ayatollah Khamenei has maintained a firm grip on Iran’s politics and its armed forces ever since, suppressing challenges to the ruling system, sometimes violently.
He also consistently taken hard-line stances on external matters, including the ongoing confrontation with the United States, of whom he remained suspicious. He had also repeatedly called for the elimination of the State of Israel – publicly questioning whether the Holocaust occurred.
There have been seven presidents of Iran to serve during the rule of Khamenei, who has six children.
