Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei dies following Israel-U.S. strike in Tehran

Iran’s militant and opinionated religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled the Islamic Republic for more than three decades and presided over a period of bitter internal repression and conflict with the United States and Israel, died as his compound was reduced to rubble after Israel’s offensive in Tehran, a senior Israeli official told Fox News Digital.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of FDD’s Iran program, told Fox News Digital: “Khamenei was the Middle East’s longest-serving contemporary autocrat. He did not become what he was by being a gambler. Khamenei was an ideologue, but he was someone who tried to ruthlessly preserve and protect his ideology, often taking two steps forward and one step back.”

“Khamenei’s worldview was shaped by militant anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism, which first manifested itself in his protests against the Shah of Iran,” he added.

Born on April 19, 1939, in Mashhad in eastern Iran, Khamenei was among the Islamist activists who played a central role in the revolution that overthrew the US-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in ​​1979. A close ally of Iran’s first religious leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei went through the new system, serving as president from 1981 to 1989, and became religious leader after Khomeini’s death that same year.

In power for decades, Khamenei has consolidated his control over Iran’s political and security system by presiding over repeated crackdowns on dissidents and taking a hardline stance against Washington and Jerusalem.

“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule has been marked by relentless brutality and repression both within Iran and beyond its borders,” said Lisa Daftari, an Iran expert and editor-in-chief of Foreign Desk. He noted the use of executions and strict social controls as defining features of the Khamenei-led system.

But his ultra-conservative style of leadership ran into difficulties. Mass protests broke out across the country in 2009 following disputed elections in which Khamenei declared victory over incumbent president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

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In this photo taken by an Associated Press employee and obtained by the AP outside Iran, Iranians protest the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained by morality police in Tehran on Oct. 1, 2022. (Associated Press)

Mass demonstrations broke out in 2022 after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while being detained by the morality police for allegedly wearing her hijab inappropriately. Protests were brutally suppressed; many people were arrested and executed by the regime.

In late December, Iran was once again rocked by protests and a violent, brutal security response. According to the Iran International investigation, as many as 30,000 people may have been killed in the two days between January 8-9, 2026.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (left) meets with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei during his visit to Tehran, Iran, on October 22, 2016. (Pool / Religious Leader Press Office/Anadolu Agency/Getty Image)

International observers and human rights groups have repeatedly documented high execution figures in Iran in recent years as well. Amnesty International said Iranian authorities will execute more than 1,000 people in 2025, the highest annual figure the organization has recorded in at least 15 years. Separately, the UN report stated that Iran will execute at least 975 people in 2024; This number is the highest since 2015.

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Iranians gather by blocking the street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, on January 9, 2026. (MAHSA / Middle East Images / AFP via Getty Images)

Khamenei has invested heavily in Iran’s network of allied militias and armed groups across the region; this was a strategy used to extend Iran’s power beyond its borders. From the West Bank and Gaza, where it supports terrorist groups like Hamas, to Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis extremists in Yemen, as well as other militant militias in Iraq, Iran under Khamenei has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on terrorist groups.

However, his valued proxies and Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria collapsed under Israeli military pressure following the October 7, 2023 attack. During the 12-day war in June 2025, Israel also managed to eliminate some of Khamenei’s closest aides and senior security figures, significantly weakening the long-serving leader.

But analysts suggest that Khamenei’s most enduring legacy may be the institutional mechanism he established at home to preserve the system.

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Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei appeared in public for the first time in weeks with new US threats. (Iranian Supreme Leader Credit/RELATED PRESS OFFICE)

A recent report by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), written by Saeid Golkar and Kasra Aarabi, describes Beit, the Office of the Supreme Leader, as a parallel structure located between Iran’s military, economy, religious institutions, and bureaucracy.

“It is the secret nerve center of the regime in Iran… it operates as a state within a state,” Aarabi said in an interview with Fox News Digital. he said. He argued that even removing Khamenei would not necessarily eliminate the system. “Even if the Supreme Leader is removed, the Beit as an institution ensures that the Supreme Leader functions,” Aarabi said, adding: “Think of the Supreme Leader as an institution rather than a single individual.”

Aarabi also warned that “removing Khamenei alone is not enough” and called for a broader strategy to address the broader apparatus surrounding the supreme leader. “You need to dismantle this overarching apparatus that he created,” he said.

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FDD’s Ben Taleblu said, “Unlike Khomeini, the founding father of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei institutionalized his power. Today, the Islamic Republic is more a product of Khamenei than Khomeini.” he added.

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