Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, arrives at a polling station to vote for the new president in his office in Tehran, on June 12, 2009. (Credit: Olivier Laban-Mattei / AFP)
For more than three decades, he was the face of the Islamic Republic — its architect. The father of nuclear ambiguity, ballistic missiles, proxy militias and the doctrine of “strategic patience,” a strategy that ultimately contributed to his own downfall.He was the regime’s beating heart, its central cog, the ultimate decision-maker in a system where the Supreme Leader — as the representative of the Hidden Imam — wielded near-unlimited political and religious authority.By eliminating Ali Khamenei, Washington and Tel Aviv have likely not delivered a knockout blow to the Islamic Republic, but regardless of who succeeds him, the regime will no longer be the same. On Sunday, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was appointed as the jurist member of the governing council tasked with temporarily assuming the duties of the Supreme Leader, according to the...
For more than three decades, he was the face of the Islamic Republic — its architect. The father of nuclear ambiguity, ballistic missiles, proxy militias and the doctrine of “strategic patience,” a strategy that ultimately contributed to his own downfall.He was the regime’s beating heart, its central cog, the ultimate decision-maker in a system where the Supreme Leader — as the representative of the Hidden Imam — wielded near-unlimited political and religious authority.By eliminating Ali Khamenei, Washington and Tel Aviv have likely not delivered a knockout blow to the Islamic Republic, but regardless of who succeeds him, the regime will no longer be the same. On Sunday, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was appointed as the jurist member of the governing council tasked with temporarily assuming the duties of the Supreme Leader,...
'American sponsorship is a guarantee,' says Lebanese-American coordination committee