During an anti-Israel march in Baghdad last year, a portrait of the highest Shiite religious dignitary in Iraq, Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, and of Iran's former supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed during Israel-US strikes on Feb. 28, 2026. (Credit: Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP)
One was born in 1930, the other in 1939. Yet it is the elder who ultimately outlived the younger. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on Feb. 28, while Ayatollah Ali Sistani remains the highest Shiite authority in Iraq. Their relationship had always been complex: outwardly respectful, quietly rivalrous, each representing a distinct doctrinal and institutional current within Shiism. Dig deeper Iran broadens target list: Message from new supreme leader? The divide runs between the Qom’s hawza (Shiite seminary) in Iran and that of Najaf in Iraq, pitting the advocates of Wilayat al-Faqih against supporters of a more Iraq-centered approach.Following Khamenei’s death, Sistani responded in two stages. On March 1, he issued a statement emphasizing “the unique role he played in leading the...
One was born in 1930, the other in 1939. Yet it is the elder who ultimately outlived the younger. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, was killed in a U.S.-Israeli strike on Feb. 28, while Ayatollah Ali Sistani remains the highest Shiite authority in Iraq. Their relationship had always been complex: outwardly respectful, quietly rivalrous, each representing a distinct doctrinal and institutional current within Shiism. Dig deeper Iran broadens target list: Message from new supreme leader? The divide runs between the Qom’s hawza (Shiite seminary) in Iran and that of Najaf in Iraq, pitting the advocates of Wilayat al-Faqih against supporters of a more Iraq-centered approach.Following Khamenei’s death, Sistani responded in two stages. On March 1, he issued a statement emphasizing “the unique role he played in leading...
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