Here is a look at Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.
Personal:
Birth date: July 17, 1939
Birth place: Meshed, Iran
Birth name: Seyyed Ali Khamenei
Father: Ayatollah Sayyid Jawad Husaini Khamenei
Mother: Name unavailable publicly
Marriage: Married in 1964
Children: Mostafa, Mojtaba, Massoud, Maysam, Hoda and Boshra
Education: Studied under Ayatollah Khomeini in Qom, Iran
Religion: Shiite Muslim
Timeline:
1962 – Begins his involvement in protests against the monarchy that rules Iran, under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini.
1977 – Along with other clerics, forms the Combatant Clerics Association, which becomes the Islamic Republic Party.
1980-1987 – Secretary-general and member of the central command of the Islamic Republic Party.
June 1981 – Injured when a bomb placed in a tape recorder explodes at a press conference.
October 13, 1981-August 3, 1989 – President of Iran.
March 1985 – Survives when a suicide bomb detonates nearby.
June 4, 1989-present – Is provisionally elected supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.
July 28, 1989 – A referendum makes his election official, and a group of religious leaders later confirm his election as supreme leader.
June 19, 2009 – After protests following presidential elections, Khamenei warns that the demonstrations must stop or the protestors will “face the consequences.”
May 2011 – Khamenei becomes locked in a public power struggle with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
February 2012 – Issues a statement that Iran will back any nation or group fighting against Israel.
March 2012 – Reacts to tensions involving Iran’s nuclear program and welcomes US President Barack Obama’s comment that “it is in the best interest of the United States, Israel and the world” to peacefully resolve Iran’s nuclear crisis.
March 2012 – Khamenei beats opposition movement by 64% in parliamentary election against rival President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
March 21, 2013 – Khamenei, in a televised speech, threatens Tel Aviv and Haifa by stating “at times the officials of the Zionist regime (Israel) threaten to launch a military invasion but they themselves know that if they make the slightest mistake the Islamic Republic will raze Tel Aviv and Haifa to the ground.”
January 2015 – Khamenei publishes an open letter to his website, directed at Western youths, asking them not to judge Islam based on the Charlie Hebdo terror attacks.
October 21, 2015 – Khamenei conditionally approves the nuclear deal signed between his country and six world powers in July.
February 7, 2017 – According to Khamenei’s website, Khamenei tells a gathering of Iran’s air force commanders in Tehran, “We however thank this new guy in the White House, since he largely did the job we had been trying to do in the past decades: to divulge the true face of the US. We had been working to show the world the depth of corruption in US government and ranks and files of the ruling elite; Trump did it in few days after coming to the White House.”
January 9, 2018 – Speaking on the anniversary of the Iranian revolution that began in 1978, Khamenei says that Iranians have a right to protest. But he also blames the United States and Israel for the most recent civil unrest.
