DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who served as Iran’s supreme leader for over three decades, reshaped the nation into a regional power and increasingly positioned it in opposition to Israel and the United States.
His funeral, which will span several days, is scheduled to begin on Saturday, several months after his death amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict in Iran.
Khamenei assumed power following Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death in 1989, the revolutionary figure who toppled the Shah and instituted clerical rule. As a more reserved figure with less formal religious authority, Khamenei was tasked with transforming that revolutionary ideal into a stable state apparatus.
He backed numerous armed factions across the Middle East, advanced Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and responded to domestic protests with severe repression. Although his confrontations with the United States and Israel garnered domestic support, they ultimately contributed to his downfall.
Following the 1980s Iran‑Iraq war, Khamenei elevated the Revolutionary Guard to the central pillar of his authority. The Guard evolved into a massive military and economic force, dominating Iran’s security apparatus and key commercial sectors.
During Khamenei’s tenure, Iran pivoted from conventional warfare to a strategy of proxy support, establishing the “Axis of Resistance.”
This entailed support for Lebanon’s Hezbollah, which expelled Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000 and has engaged Israel in repeated clashes since.
Iran also backed Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who seized the capital in 2014 and held it for more than a decade in a prolonged conflict, and the Palestinian group Hamas, which has fought Israel in Gaza. Iranian‑supported militias also conducted an insurgency against U.S. forces in Iraq.
However, the Middle East conflicts triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel set in motion the erosion of the “Axis of Resistance,” weakening both Hamas and Hezbollah.
For decades, Khamenei dismissed U.N. sanctions and pursued Iran’s nuclear program, which the United States and its allies have asserted concealed a secret weapons‑development effort until 2003.
Khamenei issued a religious decree declaring nuclear weapons un‑Islamic while insisting that Iran would never relinquish its right to develop what he termed a peaceful nuclear energy program.
Under the 2015 nuclear agreement, Iran agreed to significantly reduce its uranium stockpile and enrichment levels in exchange for sanction relief. After U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018 — a move applauded by Israel — Iran has amassed a stockpile of uranium enriched to near‑weapons grade. Israeli and some U.S. officials have voiced concern that Tehran could weaponize this material if it chose.
Both the 2025 U.S.–Israeli strikes and the ongoing conflict have targeted Iran’s nuclear program.
Political repression and Iran’s deteriorating economy have sparked increasingly larger waves of protest.
In 2009, protests erupted after reformist opponents alleged that the reelection of hard‑line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been rigged. The government responded with a crackdown that resulted in dozens of deaths and hundreds of arrests.
Economic protests erupted in 2017 and intensified in 2019 over a government‑mandated increase in gasoline prices. Authorities cracked down, killing more than 300 people, according to activists.
In 2022, protests surged following the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained for allegedly violating headscarf regulations. Security forces suppressed the demonstrations, resulting in over 500 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests.
In late 2025, economic protests exploded into what appeared to be the largest demonstration in Iran’s history. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets calling for the end of the Islamic Republic. The crackdown was fierce — activists claim at least 7,000 deaths — leaving Iranians stunned.
Khamenei’s death raises questions about the future of the Islamic Republic. His son, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, was designated as his successor, but reports suggest he was wounded in the strike that killed his father and has not been seen publicly.
As Trump initiated the current conflict, he urged Iranians to “take over your government.” To date, no such uprising has materialized, although hard‑liners have held nightly rallies in Tehran’s streets.
What transpires after the burial of the elder Khamenei will likely hinge on institutions such as the Revolutionary Guard, which has repeatedly demonstrated its willingness to employ overwhelming force to preserve its authority.
