Latest news with #SeyyedAliKhamenei
Memri
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Memri
Shiite Ceremony in Canada: We See Our Leaders Being Killed, Sabotaged, Assassinated –We Can't Even Mention the Name of Ali Khamenei Today Without Fear
During a Muharram observance at the Ahlulbayt Mosque in Windsor, Ontario, a Shiite Islamic scholar said: 'We see our leaders being killed, sabotaged, our leaders being assassinated […] If we can't support the Appointed Guardian of Allah today, if we can't support Seyyed Ali Khamenei without fear, then how can we be trusted to defend the imam tomorrow?' Worshipers performed the latmiyya ritual in the mosque, with a large poster of Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah displayed on the wall in honor of Muharram. The video of the observance was posted as an Instagram story by the Ahlulbayt Youth Collective on June 30, 2025. On January 7, 2024, a memorial service was held by the Ahlulbayt Youth Collective honoring the 'martyrs murdered by Israel in Lebanon,' including Hamas deputy leader Saleh Al-Arouri and various Hizbullah officials. During the service, teen boys saluted posters of these "martyrs" while the song 'Salute, Commander' played in the background. The lyrics of the song include children pledging to become soldiers of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. It is notable that the mosque and its associated Islamic school held a similar memorial for Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah on September 29, and for several Hizbullah 'martyrs' on June 22. In 2022, Firas Al-Najim of CD4HR shared a photo of himself with Windsor Mayor Drew Dilkens at a 2018 event at the mosque, wearing a scarf featuring Khamenei's image. The Ahlulbayt Youth Collective Instagram account frequently shares stories glorifying Hizbullah officials and 'martyrs.' The Windsor mosque also hosted a Shiite youth group from Michigan for the Muharram observance.
Time of India
28-06-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
'Illegal, terrorist in nature': Iran Drags Netanyahu, Trump To U.N. Over 'Assassinate Khamenei' Plot
Amir Saeid Iravani, the Iranian ambassador to the UN, submitted a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Security Council, and General Assembly President regarding threats made by the United States and Israel against the leader of the Islamic Revolution Seyyed Ali Khamenei. The threats, he said, were "terror-inciting" and "unlawful." Watch this video to know more.
Saba Yemen
26-06-2025
- Politics
- Saba Yemen
Khamenei: Zionist entity almost collapsed by Iranian strikes
Tehran - Saba: The Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, said that the Zionist entity has almost collapsed under the blows of the Islamic Republic. In his third video message following the Zionist entity's aggression against the country, he added: "I consider it my duty to congratulate the great Iranian people on several occasions; the first is congratulating them on the victory over the fake Zionist entity." He continued: "America entered the war directly to protect Israel, but it achieved nothing and received a severe blow." He said: "I congratulate the great Iranian people on a second victory, which is the victory over the American regime." He added: "The American regime entered the war directly because it felt that if it did not intervene, the Zionist entity would be completely annihilated. However, despite this intervention, it has not achieved any notable accomplishments." He praised the unity of the Iranian people: Ninety million stood together, without any discrimination in their demands. He praised the popular solidarity within Iran, considering it one of the most prominent national victories. He said: "The third congratulations I extend to the Iranian people for their exceptional unity and solidarity. By the grace of God, a nation of nearly ninety million people stood together with one voice, shoulder to shoulder, cohesive and united, without any discrimination in their demands, behind one goal." He added: "They chanted together, spoke with one voice, and declared their support for the armed forces. The Iranian people demonstrated their nobility and unique character, proving that in fateful moments, the voice of this nation will be one. And thank God, this is what has happened." Whatsapp Telegram Email Print
The Hindu
15-06-2025
- Politics
- The Hindu
The last ‘revolutionary' of Iran
In Tehran's Ebrat Museum, once a notorious prison for political detainees under the Shah, a narrow corridor is lined with photographs of former inmates. Among them, in a brown wooden frame, is the image of a middle-aged man with a bearded face and thick rectangular glasses. The name beneath, written in Farsi, reads: Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei. Preserved by the revolutionary regime as a grim reminder of the brutality of the Shah's secret police, SAVAK, Ebrat displays torture chambers and documents torture methods. One tiny, dimly lit cell, with a single barred window, has been left intact – it is where Mr. Khamenei was held. Inside stands a life-size wax figure of the Ayatollah, older than he appears in the photograph. Dressed in a black turban, which suggests lineage to the Prophet Mohammed, round spectacles, and a brown robe, the statue evokes both suffering and resolve. 'Khamenei was imprisoned six times by the Shah's police. He was brought here in 1974,' a museum official told this writer during a visit in February 2022. 'In autumn 1974, he endured the most brutal and savage torture for eight months in there,' reads a short biography posted outside the cell. 'The Shah wanted to break him. But God wanted him as the country's rahbar (leader),' said the museum official. Mr. Khamenei, who has been the rahbar of the Islamic Republic since 1989, has built a theocratic system that is loyal to him. He is the Supreme Leader, the jurist of the guardians. A conservative cleric, he has led Iran through political and economic upheavals, and has survived both reformist and hardliner Presidents. But in recent years, on Mr. Khamenei's watch, unrest has spread across the country. In recent months, Iran's influence abroad has dramatically waned, particularly after Israel started attacking the so-called 'axis of resistance', the Iran-backed militia network in West Asia. On June 13, Israel, Iran's arch foe, launched a daunting attack inside Iran, targeting its nuclear facilities and ballistic missile sites, and assassinating its top chain of command. With the Israeli leadership threatening to 'burn' Tehran, the 86-year-old Ayatollah must be feeling the weight of the revolution on his shoulders. Child of revolution Born in 1939 in royalist Iran, Ali Khamenei grew up in the holy city of Mashhad, which hosts the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth Imam of Twelver Shiism. Like many clerics of his generation, his political views were influenced by the 1953 coup, a covert operation orchestrated by the CIA and the MI6, against the elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh. The coup reinstated Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. This episode turned a generation of Iranians against the Shah. The clerical establishment, under the leadership of the exiled cleric, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, played a critical role in the anti-Shah agitation that was building up across the country. From the early 1960s, Mr. Khamenei was actively involved in the protests. When the Shah regime collapsed and Khomeini returned to Tehran from Paris in February 1979 to establish a new Islamic Republic, Mr. Khamenei rose quickly through the clerical ranks. Khomeini named him as Deputy Defence Minister. He became the Imam of Friday prayers in Tehran, a position which he still holds. If Imam Khomeini was the Supreme Leader of the new regime, Imam Khamenei emerged as its chief commissar. In June 1981, he was seriously wounded by a tape recorder bomb that went off in Tehran's Abouzar Mosque. His right arm got paralysed and he lost hearing in one ear. 'I won't need the hand; it would suffice if my brain and tongue work,' Mr. Khamenei once said about the attack. The blast, however, solidified his image as a survivor – a living martyr of the revolution. Within a few months, he got elected as Iran's President. When Khomeini died in 1989, the revolution became an orphan. Khomeini had established a unique system in Iran — vilayat-e-faqih, 'guardianship of the jurist' or the rule of the clergy. With no clear successor in line, senior clerics tuned to Mr. Khamenei. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, another revolutionary figure with considerable influence in the system, played a key role in the selection of Mr. Khamenei. 'I am truly not worthy of this title,' Mr. Khamenei told the assembly that picked him. 'My nomination should make us all cry tears of blood.' But he took the chalice. And Rafsanjani became President. Soon after his ascent to the top office, Mr. Khamenei promised Iranians that the revolution would 'lead the country on the path of material growth and progress'. But he faced daunting political and economic challenges. He became the Supreme Leader at a time when the revolutionary fervour was receding. The Iran-Iraq war was over. The new regime's internal enemies and critics, from the terrorist Mujahideen-e-Khalq to the leftist Tudeh party, had been suppressed. But there were still strong liberal currents in Iranian polity and society. Despite Mr. Khamenei's vision for a centralised clerical rule, voters elected Mohammed Khatami, a moderate reformist, as President in 1997. Mr. Khatami had promised reforms from within. But when protests broke out seeking more individual freedoms, Mr. Khamenei stood by the hardliners. The protests were brutally suppressed, and Mr. Khatami was turned into a lame-duck President. The election of Khatami was an opportunity for Iran to open up the system and implement incremental reforms. But the way the regime handled the protests only reinforced the rigidity of the system, which led to further cracks. In 2009, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a hardline favourite of the establishment, was 're-elected', protests broke out. Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who served as Prime Minister of Iran under Mr. Khamenei's presidency in the 1980s (Iran later abolished the post of Prime Minister), was the opposition candidate. Mr. Mousavi's followers accused election fraud. Protests spread, with many calling for the downfall of the rahbar. That was a moment of challenge for the Supreme Leader. But he endorsed Mr. Ahmadinejad's victory, while security forces cracked down on Mr. Mousavi's 'Green Movement'. Perilous cycle While political tensions persisted, what made them worse was the economic mess Iran was in. A country rich with natural resources, Iran was grappling with hyperinflation, stymied growth and a tanking currency, mainly due to the Western sanctions. Mr. Khamenei knew that the future of the revolution was linked to the state's ability in creating economic opportunities. So even when he called America the 'Great Satan', he sanctioned nuclear talks with the U.S. after Hassan Rouhani, a moderate cleric, became President in 2013. The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers was the best chance for Tehran to enter the global economic mainstream and rebuild itself. But then Donald Trump entered the scene. In 2018, Mr. Trump, in his first term, destroyed the agreement and reimposed sanctions on Iran. Ever since, the economic crisis at home got worsened, along with tightening repression, which triggered frequent uprisings. It became a perilous cycle for Iranians. And then Israel, after the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack, turned against the Iran-backed network in West Asia, which acted as Tehran's forward defence and its deterrence. Mr. Khamenei watched helplessly when Israel destroyed Gaza, degraded Hezbollah and bombed the regime of Bashar al Assad in Syria, which eventually collapsed. It was only a matter of time before the Israelis came for Iran. And they did so on June 13. Set against Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, Ayatollah Khamenei finds himself with few good options. Iran's retaliatory strike against Israel on the night of June 13 was a bold display of force – a message that the Islamic Republic still has the firepower to hit the 'Little Satan'. But the conflict is far from over. Iran's defences remain vulnerable; its regional axis has been rolled back; its partners have their own problems. And Mr. Trump, who extended an offer of dialogue which Iran had cautiously accepted, is throwing his weight behind Mr. Netanyahu. Mr. Khamenei, once described by a reformist politician as the 'Sun of the Iranian solar system', now faces the greatest test since the revolution — to protect the regime and protect the nation.
Mint
14-06-2025
- Politics
- Mint
Iranian Major General Amir Hatami appointed new Army chief amid attacks from Israel: Who is he?
Commander-in-Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei ordered the appointment of Major General Amir Hatami as Chief Commander of the Army of the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of major reshuffle at Iran's military top leadership, Tehran Times reported. This comes following the assassination of General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, the head of the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), by Israel's series of airstrikes in Iran's capital. According to an official decree on Friday, the decision was announced where Khamenei stated Hatami's 'dedication, competence, and experience' as the basis for the appointment. 'With the Army's vast pool of capable and faithful personnel, and the experience gained during the Sacred Defense and beyond, it is expected that under your command, efforts to enhance combat readiness, strengthen spiritual and ideological foundations, improve personnel welfare, and boost cooperation with other branches of the Armed Forces will accelerate,' the decree read. Hatami, 59, succeeded Hossein Dehghan and preceded Mohammad Reza Gharaei Ashtiani. He was Iran's Defense Minister from 2013 to 2021 and has now taken command of the country's regular military forces amid escalating regional tensions. He is the first defense minister with an Artesh background in over two decades, breaking a pattern in place since 1989, when the position had been exclusively held by officers from the Revolutionary Guards. Hatami studied at Imam Ali Officers' Academy, AJA University of Command and Staff, National Defense University. Iran and Israel exchanged missile and airstrikes early Saturday, after Israel carried out its largest air assault to date against its longtime adversary in an effort to halt its nuclear weapons development. In Iran, numerous explosions were heard in the capital Tehran, the semi-official Tasnim news agency report said. Iranian missiles broke through Israel's air defenses on Friday, marking a significant test for the country's defensive systems. Since the war began on October 7, 2023, Israel has faced a barrage of threats, including short-range rockets, medium-range missiles, attack drones, and ballistic missiles launched from Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Iran. The long-range ballistic missiles fired Friday night posed one of the toughest challenges yet. Iranian missiles injured 34 people in Israel, whereas Israel's strikes in Iran led to 78 deaths, leaving 329 others injured.
