The 36-year rule of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei built Iran into a powerful anti-U.S. force, spreading its military sway across the Middle East, while using an iron fist to crush repeated unrest at home. WATCH | Trump posted about leader's death Saturday afternoon: Trump says Iran's supreme leader is dead after U.S.-Israeli strikes | Duration 5:53 U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been killed in U.S.-Israeli strikes on Tehran. By maintaining the hardline stance of Khomeini, the Republic's first supreme leader, Khamenei quashed the ambitions of a succession of independent-minded elected presidents who sought more open policies at home and abroad. His word was lawKhamenei long denied that Iran's nuclear program was aimed at producing an atomic weapon, as the West contended. Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd during Friday prayers, with an automatic rifle visible behind the rostrum, in Tehran, July 17, 1989.

Source: CBC News March 01, 2026 18:43 UTC