Episode 3224
Ali Khamenei
Sun, 2026-Mar-01 07:29 UTC
Length - 5:26
Direct Link
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With 2,738,521 views on Saturday, 28 February 2026 our article of the day is Ali Khamenei.
Ali Hosseini Khamenei (19 April 1939 – 28 February 2026) was an Iranian cleric and politician who served as the supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his killing by US and Israeli forces in 2026. Khamenei previously served as the president of Iran from 1981 to 1989. His tenure as supreme leader, spanning 36 years and six months, made him the longest-serving head of state in the Middle East at the time of his death and the longest-serving Iranian leader since Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Born into the Khamenei family, he studied at a hawza in his hometown of Mashhad, later settling in Qom in 1958, where he attended the classes of Ruhollah Khomeini. Khamenei became involved in opposition to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran, and was arrested six times before being exiled for three years by the Shah's regime. Khamenei was a mainstream figure in the 1978–1979 Iranian Revolution, and upon its success, held many posts in the newly established Islamic Republic of Iran. 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 served as the third president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 during the Iran–Iraq War, when he also developed close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). After the death of Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei was elected supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts.
As supreme leader, Khamenei supported Iran's nuclear program for civilian use while issuing a fatwa forbidding the production of weapons of mass destruction. Khamenei favoured economic privatization of state-owned industries and, with oil and gas reserves, transformed Iran into an "energy superpower". His foreign policy centered on Shia Islamism and exporting the Iranian Revolution. Khamenei played a pivotal role in the development of the IRGC, transforming it into a primary tool for domestic control and regional influence. 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. A staunch critic of Israel and of Zionism, Khamenei supported the Palestinians in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; his rhetoric included calls for Israel's destruction and antisemitic tropes. Under Khamenei, Iran was involved in proxy wars with Israel and Saudi Arabia; in 2025 and 2026, tensions with Israel and the United States escalated to a 12-day armed conflict and ongoing strikes.
Identified as a pragmatic hardliner, Khamenei sidelined leftist factions, moderate clerics, and political dissidents, while occasionally easing restrictions when the regime's stability or legitimacy had been threatened. His leadership had been closely associated with the expansion of state militarization and the consolidation of power within the office of the Supreme Leader. Khamenei had also faced many protests, including the 1999 Iranian student protests, the 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, the 2011–2012 Iranian protests, the 2017–2018 Iranian protests, the 2018–2019 Iranian general strikes and protests, the 2019–2020 Iranian protests, the Mahsa Amini protests, and the 2025–2026 Iranian protests. Journalists, bloggers and other individuals were put on trial in Iran for the charges of insulting Supreme Leader Khamenei, often in conjunction with blasphemy charges. Their sentences included lashing and jail time; some of them died in custody. He was also known by the title Ayatollah and was considered one of the leading Shia Muslim marja' in the world. Khamenei's critics viewed him as a repressive despot responsible for repression, mass murders and other acts of injustice.
On 28 February 2026, Khamenei was killed in an airstrike during the 2026 Israeli–United States strikes on Iran.
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 07:29 UTC on Sunday, 1 March 2026.
For the full current version of the article, see Ali Khamenei on Wikipedia.
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Until next time, I'm generative Salli.
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