Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran whose death was confirmed Sunday by Tehran, had for decades embodied the Islamic Republic and its ideological confrontation with the American "Great Satan" and Israel, its sworn enemy.

In tears, a state television presenter announced early Sunday morning the death of the 86-year-old, the oldest head of state in the Middle East, without mentioning the Israeli and American airstrikes on Saturday against his Tehran residence. The Revolutionary Guards soon afterward promised "severe punishment" for his "murderers," specifically mentioning Israel and the United States.

Sporting the black turban of the "sayyids," the descendants of the Prophet Muhammad, a bushy white beard, and glasses, Ali Khamenei was the head of the Iranian theocratic system

As such, he held almost absolute power over religious, political, and military matters. His portraits are ubiquitous in public places, and the question of his succession had never been raised publicly.

- "Seditions" -

In June 1989, Ali Khamenei was about to turn 50 when he was appointed supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

His accession had been smooth, Khamenei having consolidated his power by occupying the presidency of the country for eight years, marked by a devastating war with Iraq (1980-1988).

His frequent visits to the front lines in fatigues had largely contributed to shaping his image.

His three decades as supreme leader were marked by a succession of crises and challenges.

In 2009, the "Green Movement" arose during the disputed re-election of ultraconservative President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. In 2022, the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement emerged after the death in custody of young Mahsa Amini, arrested for allegedly wearing an improperly adjusted headscarf.

Recently, he had described the massive demonstrations in January against the government and the economic slump as an attempted "coup d'état", justifying their repression.

- Life without pomp -

The son of an imam, Khamenei was born, according to his official website, on April 19, 1939 into a poor Azerbaijani family in Mashhad (northeast), the country's second largest city.

He studied in the main centers of Shiite Islam: Najaf in Iraq and Qom in Iran.

His political activism against the Shah, Reza Pahlavi, who was supported by the United States, resulted in him spending much of the 1960s and 1970s in prison.

His loyalty to Khomeini, whose teachings he had followed since 1958, was rewarded in 1980 when he was given the key role of leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

The following year, he was elected president. A few months earlier, he survived an assassination attempt that left his right hand partially paralyzed.

A great orator known for leading a modest life, Khamenei very rarely traveled outside Iran. As president, he made a notable trip to the United States to deliver a speech at the UN General Assembly in 1987.

He lived in a relatively modest residence in the center of Tehran. Placed under heavy protection, his public appearances had not been broadcast live since the 12-day war launched in June 2025 by Israel to destroy the Iranian nuclear program.

- Martial rhetoric -

In power, Khamenei transformed the Supreme Leader's household, which consisted of only a handful of people under his predecessor, into an institution equivalent to a state within a state.

He oversaw six presidents, with different political orientations, such as the moderates Mohammad Khatami and Hassan Rouhani or the conservatives Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Ebrahim Raïssi.

Under his leadership, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps extended its control over the country and its economy, and increased its influence beyond Iran's borders, notably in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. But this "axis of resistance" shattered under the blows of Israel following the Hamas attack in October 2023.

In 2018, Khamenei described Israel as a "malignant tumor" in the Middle East that needed to be "removed." A few years earlier, he had called the extermination of Jews during World War II a "myth."

Accustomed to martial rhetoric, he had threatened in mid-February to sink the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln deployed in the Gulf, asserting that Donald Trump would not succeed in destroying the Islamic Republic.

Under his leadership, Iran plunged into economic stagnation, weakened by international sanctions - despite a slight rebound in the 1990s and especially the 2015 international agreement to regulate the Iranian nuclear program.

- Passionate about literature -

A lover of literature, Ali Khamenei was an admirer of Victor Hugo and his novel "Les Misérables", a "prodigious" book about "kindness, affection and love", in his words.

He was also a lover of poetry, a passion passed down by his mother, whom he greatly admired. Before the Revolution, he had notably translated collections from Arabic and composed poems.

In 2019, a photo published by his office caused a sensation: it showed him at the Tehran Book Fair smiling as he browsed a collection of Ahmad Shamlou, an Iranian Marxist poet abhorred by the Islamic Republic.

He had six children, only one of whom, Mojtaba, 56, holds a public position. Without an official role, this religious figure has been considered by some experts as a possible successor to his father, who, however, has denied this scenario.