How Ayatollah Khamenei kept an iron grip on power for almost 40 years

US President Donald Trump announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during massive US and Israeli air strikes on Iran, an event later confirmed by Iranian state television. The 86-year-old ruler, who had held Iran's highest office for nearly three decades, died amid unprecedented military action against the country's nuclear facilities and military infrastructure. Khamenei's death marks the end of an era for Iran, as he was the only supreme leader besides the revolution's founder Ayatollah Khomeini since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Born in 1939 in Mashhad to a religious family, Khamenei rose from studying the Quran to become an effective orator opposing the Shah. He was arrested six times by the Shah's secret police, suffering torture and exile. After the Islamic revolution, Khomeini appointed him Tehran's Friday prayer leader, establishing his position in the new leadership. During the Iran-Iraq war, Khamenei served as a wartime leader, spending months on the front lines and developing his deep distrust of the West, which had backed Saddam Hussein. In 1989, despite not being considered a top religious scholar, he was selected as Khomeini's successor and spent the next 34 years building networks of loyalists across Iranian institutions while maintaining a cult of personality and suppressing opposition. His rule was characterized by brutal crackdowns on protests, restrictions on women's rights, and a foreign policy that combined anti-Western rhetoric with careful diplomacy. Khamenei survived an assassination attempt in 1981 that left him permanently injured his right arm and lungs. In recent years, he faced increasing economic challenges and international isolation, culminating in the current military confrontation that began when Israeli forces attacked Iran's nuclear program in June 2025, followed by US strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities in January 2026. Khamenei had vowed never to surrender, but his death in these circumstances heralds a new and uncertain future for Iran and the wider region.