Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran puts brakes on hijab laws amid backlash, President hints at law reform

Debate reignites as Iranian police detain Parastoo Ahmadi over her hijab-less performance in an online concert

Who's Iran's next supreme leader? Trace Mojtaba Khamenei's rise to power

Born in Mashhad in 1969, Mojtaba Khamenei is the second son of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the present Supreme Leader of Iran

Khamenei pledges 'crushing response' to US, Israel for actions against Iran

Sharing a post on X, Iran's supreme leader wrote, 'United States of America and the Zionist regime will definitely get a crushing response for what they do against #Iran and the #Resistance Front'

As Israel pressures Iran, Khamenei to give first Friday sermon in 5 years

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will lead Friday prayers for the first time in nearly five years, honouring slain Hezbollah Chief Hassan Nasrallah, killed in Israeli airstrikes on September 27

Reformist Pezeshkian wins Iran's presidential runoff election, beats Jalili

Reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian won Iran's runoff presidential election Saturday, besting hard-liner Saeed Jalili by promising to reach out to the West and ease enforcement on the country's mandatory headscarf law after years of sanctions and protests squeezing the Islamic Republic. Pezeshkian promised no radical changes to Iran's Shiite theocracy in his campaign and long has held Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the final arbiter of all matters of state in the country. But even Pezeshkian's modest aims will be challenged by an Iranian government still largely held by hard-liners, the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, and Western fears over Tehran enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels. A vote count offered by authorities put Pezeshkian as the winner with 16.3 million votes to Jalili's 13.5 million in Friday's election.

First candidate drops out of Iran presidential election amid voter apathy

A candidate in Iran's presidential election withdrew from the race late Wednesday, becoming the first to back out in order for hard-liners to coalesce around a unity candidate in the vote to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi. Amirhossein Ghazizadeh Hashemi, 53, dropped his candidacy and urged other candidates to do the same so that the front of the revolution will be strengthened, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. Ghazizadeh Hasehmi served as one of Raisi's vice presidents and as the head of the Foundation of Martyrs and Veterans Affairs. He ran in the 2021 presidential election and received just under 1 million votes, coming in last place. Such withdrawals are common in the final hours of an Iranian presidential election, particularly in the last 24 hours before the vote is held when campaigns enter a mandatory quiet period without rallies. Voters go to the polls Friday. Ghazizadeh Hasehmi's decision leaves five other candidates still in the race. Analysts broadly se

Iran's supreme leader calls for maximum turnout for presidential election

Iran's supreme leader called Tuesday for maximum voter turnout in this week's presidential election to overcome the enemy," denouncing politicians who he described as believing that everything good comes from the United States. While not naming any particular candidates, the comments by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeared to directly undercut the candidacy of the race's sole reformist candidate, 69-year-old heart surgeon Masoud Pezeshkian. In recent speeches, Pezeshkian has urged Iran to return to the 2015 nuclear deal and increase its outreach to the West. The one who has the slightest opposition to the revolution ... or the Islamic system, is not useful to you, Khamenei said. He will not be a good colleague for you. Khamenei's comments drew repeated cries of Death to America, death to Israel from a raucous crowd gathered to mark the Shiite holiday of Eid al-Ghadir. The 85-year-old Khamenei urged the crowd to quiet themselves several times during his remarks. Friday's

Iran's presidential race: Candidates debate foreign policy ahead of vote

Iran's presidential candidates discussed the country's foreign policy Monday in a three-hour live debate, promising to seek better relations with other nations and work to have sanctions on their country lifted. The televised debate was the fourth in a series of five ahead of Friday's election, which follows a helicopter crash last month that killed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others. The final debate will be Tuesday. All the candidates pledged to try to have Western sanctions on Iran lifted, but they expressed different attitudes about the issue. "We will definitely negotiate and reach an agreement to revive a nuclear deal with world powers that President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2018, said Mohamad Bagher Qalibaf, the hardline pragmatic parliament speaker, who is seen as a prominent candidate. However, he said that under his presidency Iran would choose a gradual policy, taking step in return to step that the other side would take in lifting ...

Iran prepares to bury late President Raisi, foreign minister and others

Iran on Thursday prepared to inter its late president at the holiest site for Shiite Muslims in the Islamic Republic, a final sign of respect for a protege of Iran's supreme leader killed in a helicopter crash earlier this week. President Ebrahim Raisi's burial at the Imam Reza Shrine in Mashhad caps days of processionals through much of Iran, seeking to bolster the country's theocracy after the crash killing him, the country's foreign minister and six others. However, the services have not drawn the same crowd as those who gathered for services for Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani in 2020, slain by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad. It's a potential sign of the public's feelings about Raisi's presidency that saw the government harshly crack down on all dissent during protests over the 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, detained for allegedly not wearing her mandatory headscarf to authorities' liking. That crackdown, as well as Iran's struggling economy, have gone unmentioned in the

Iran's Khamenei presides over funeral for President Raisi and others

Iran's supreme leader presided over a funeral on Wednesday for the country's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei began the service at Tehran University, the caskets of the dead draped in Iranian flags with their pictures on them. On the late President Ebrahim Raisi's coffin sat a black turban signifying his direct descendance from Islam's Prophet Muhammad. In attendance were top leaders of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one of the country's major centres. Also on hand was Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the militant group that Iran has armed and supported during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. Before the funeral, an emcee led the crowd in the chant: Death to Israel! I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza ... to express our condolences, Haniyeh told those gathered. He also recounted meeting Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasti

Khamenei's confidant Mokhber takes key role in Iran as succession looms

What happens next is unclear. The election that will have to take place by July may well include Mokhber on the ballot sheet to replace Raisi on a permanent basis

Mourners begin funerals for Iran's prez, others killed in chopper crash

Mourners in black began gathering Tuesday for days of funerals and processions for Iran's late president, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, a government-led series of ceremonies aimed at both honouring the dead and projecting strength in an unsettled Middle East. For Iran's Shiite theocracy, mass demonstrations have been crucial since millions thronged the streets of Tehran to welcome Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution. An estimated 1 million turned out in 2020 for processions for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a US drone strike in Baghdad. Whether President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others draw the same crowd remains in question, particularly as Raisi died in a helicopter crash, won his office in the lowest-turnout election in the country's history and presided over sweeping crackdowns on all dissent. Prosecutors already have warned people over showi

President Ebrahim Raisi declared dead: What's next for Iran's leadership

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and others, were confirmed dead on Monday, a day after their helicopter crashed in the mountainous northwest

Ebrahim Raisi's death: Israel denies role; Iran gets interim prez. Updates

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been declared dead in the helicopter crash, which took place on Sunday in the mountainous northwest of Iran. The crash site has been located near Tavil village

'No sign of life' at crash site of helicopter carrying Iran's Raisi, others

Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric in his 60s who won Iran's presidential election in 2021, has been seen as a favourite to eventually succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Rescuers see helicopter that was carrying Iran Prez Raisi, others: Official

The incident comes as Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched an unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel last month

Iranian Prez Raisi missing after helicopter crash; here's what we know

The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iran's president and foreign minister on Sunday sent shock waves around the region. Details remained scant in the hours after the incident, and it was unclear if Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and the other officials had survived. Here's what we know so far. WHO WAS ON BOARD THE HELICOPTER AND WHERE WERE THEY GOING? The helicopter was carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, the governor of Iran's East Azerbaijan province and other officials and bodyguards, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. Raisi was returning from a trip to Iran's border with Azerbaijan earlier Sunday to inaugurate a dam with Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev, the news agency said. WHERE AND HOW DID THE HELICOPTER GO DOWN? The helicopter apparently crashed or made an emergency landing in the Dizmar forest between the cities of Varzaqan and Jolfa in Iran's East Azerbaijan province, near its border wi

Iranian Prez Raisi's helicopter crash could reverberate across Middle East

The apparent crash of a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and other officials is likely to reverberate across the Middle East. That's because Iran has spent decades supporting armed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen and the Palestinian territories that allow it to project power and potentially deter attacks from the United States or Israel, the sworn enemies of its 1979 Islamic Revolution. Tensions have never been higher than they were last month, when Iran under Raisi and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched hundreds of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel in response to an airstrike on an Iranian Consulate in Syria that killed two Iranian generals and five officers. Israel, with the help of the United States, Britain, Jordan and others, intercepted nearly all the projectiles. In response, Israel apparently launched its own strike against an air defense radar system in the Iranian city of Isfahan, causing no ...

North Korea sends delegation to Iran to break its diplomatic isolation

A high-level North Korean economic delegation was on its way to Iran, the North's state media said Wednesday, for what would be the two countries' first known talks since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Embracing the idea of a new Cold War, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is pushing to build up cooperation with countries confronting the United States, as his intensified weapons tests prompted the US and South Korea to expand their military drills. Pyongyang's delegation led by Yun Jung Ho, North Korea's minister of external economic relations, flew out Tuesday for the trip to Iran, official Korean Central News Agency said Wednesday. State media did not immediately provide further details. Pyongyang and Tehran are among the few governments in the world that support Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, and both have been accused of providing Russia with military equipment. The last known time North Korea sent senior officials to Iran was in August 2019, when a

Khamenei tacitly acknowledges that Tehran hit little in attack on Israel

Iran's supreme leader on Sunday dismissed any discussion of whether Tehran's unprecedented drone-and-missile attack on Israel hit anything there, a tacit acknowledgment that despite launching a major assault, few projectiles actually made it through to their targets. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments before senior military leaders didn't touch on the apparent Israeli retaliatory strike on Friday on the central city of Isfahan, even though air defenses opened fire and Iran grounded commercial flights across much of the country. Analysts believe both Iran and Israel, regional archrivals locked in a shadow war for years, are trying to dial back tensions following a series of escalatory attacks between them as the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip rages on and inflames the wider region. Khamenei, 85, made the comments in a meeting attended by the top ranks of Iran's regular military, police and paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, a powerful force within its Shiite theocracy. Debates by