PARIS, France, July 1, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Ali Khamenei suppressed dissent, kept 
up confrontation with the US and steered a path between competing political 
factions in over three-and-a-half decades as Iran's supreme leader.

But his domination of the Islamic republic came to an abrupt and bloody end 
on the morning of February 28, when he was killed along with several close 
family members in an Israeli air strike based on US intelligence on the first 
day of a five-week war.

Yet the Khamenei era is in many ways not over -- power was swiftly passed to 
his son Mojtaba, although he has yet to be seen in public since taking over 
as the third supreme leader of the Islamic republic.

Meanwhile even after Ali Khamenei's death, his social media accounts on X and 
Telegram regularly churn out past statements, while his image stares down 
from billboards at Iranians, often in a triple portrait with his predecessor 
Ruhollah Khomeini and his son Mojtaba.

As his funeral begins on Saturday, he is now referred in state media as the 
Martyr Imam Khamenei, enshrining the spiritual status of a man who had been a 
key figure in the Islamic republic since shortly after its inception.

- Political survivor -

Decades of experience as a political survivor could not protect him from the 
torrent of bombs that also killed his son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law 
and granddaughter.

Khamenei, age 86, had seen off a succession of crises throughout his rule 
with a mixture of repression and political cunning since taking on the 
lifetime post of leader of the Islamic revolution following the death of 
Khomeini.

He overcame 1999 student demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by a 
disputed presidential election, and 2019 demonstrations that were rapidly and 
brutally suppressed.

The 2022-2023 "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement sparked by the death in custody 
of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly 
violating the strict dress code for women, was put down in a deadly 
crackdown.

Khamenei was forced to go into hiding during the 12-day war against Israel in 
June 2025, according to US media reports, which exposed deep Israeli 
intelligence penetration of the Islamic republic that led to the killing of 
key security officials in air strikes.

Before the latest war erupted in 2026, his rule was challenged by two nights 
of mass street protests which were put down in a new crackdown by security 
forces, that according to rights groups, left thousands dead.

Khamenei defiantly dismissed the protesters as "rioters" backed by Israel and 
US.

There were also physical challenges, with his right arm partially paralysed 
following an assassination attempt in 1981 that authorities have always 
blamed on the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) group, one-time allies of the 
revolution now outlawed in the country.

He made no attempt to hide the disability with his inert right arm always 
prominent in pictures -- an apparent proud display of the scars of the 
revolution.

- 'Eerily reminiscent' -

Repeatedly arrested under the shah for his anti-imperialist activism, 
Khamenei became Tehran's Friday prayer leader shortly after the Islamic 
revolution and also served on the frontline during the Iran-Iraq war.

He was elected president in 1981 following the assassination of Mohammad Ali 
Rajai, another attack blamed on the MEK.

During the 1980s, Khomeini's most likely successor was seen as the senior 
cleric Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri but the revolutionary leader changed his 
mind shortly before his death after Montazeri objected to the mass executions 
of MEK members and other dissidents.

When Khomeini died and the Islamic republic's top clerical body, the Assembly 
of Experts, met, it was Khamenei who they chose as leader.

Khamenei famously initially rejected the nomination, putting his head in his 
hands in a show of despair and declaring, "I am opposed".

Over the course of his career Khamenei worked with six elected presidents, a 
far less powerful position than supreme leader, including more moderate 
figures like Mohammad Khatami who were allowed to make stabs at cautious 
reform and rapprochement with the West.

A complex network of factions competed for his favour and influence, 
including the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Iranian 
military.

But Khamenei always came down on the side of hardliners and confrontation 
with the "Great Satan," the United States, and he refused to recognise the 
existence of Israel.

"Ali Khamenei was the most influential actor in Iran, but he still had to 
manage several competing power centres in the system," said Thomas Juneau, 
professor at the University of Ottawa.

He is believed to have had six children, although only Mojtaba gained public 
prominence.

It remains to be seen how he will wield power but a statement where Mojtaba 
Khamenei said he backed talks with the US, despite having a "different view", 
appeared to conjure up Ali Khamenei's political ghost.

The statement was "eerily reminiscent of his father's tradition," of staying 
above the fray in politics, said Arash Azizi, lecturer at Yale University.