There is a quote that says, “no one knows the people better than their rulers, and no one knows a ruler better than the people who live in his country.” As someone who spent nearly four decades in Iran, this article will take a fair look at the Ayatollah’s political life.
The beginning of his political life
Ali Khamenei was from Mashhad, a religious city in northeastern Iran. He was a religious cleric and an opponent of the last king of Iran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s and his regime, and for that reason was arrested and exiled several times. During the 1979 Revolution he did not hold a high rank among the revolutionaries, and no one took him seriously.
In the years after the 1979 Revolution, during a wave of assassinations Khamenei was also the victim of one such attempt and, although he survived, his right hand was injured and he was left disabled. He was a good speaker, and this gradually elevated him to higher positions within the hierarchy of the new clerical regime, eventually leading to the presidency. In 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, Khamenei was chosen as the successor, and he embarked upon a 37-year path that ended with his death, last month.
The path to power
The path he took to consolidate power was not dissimilar to Stalin’s political journey, filled with intrigue, elimination and killing in order to gain full control and sideline rivals. He lacked the self-confidence of his predecessor and, in terms of religious authority, he was far weaker, lacking the politically necessary charisma. Nevertheless, step by step he moved towards domination of the country until he became the foremost figure in the authoritarian government.
He did not hesitate to kill in order to preserve power and, in January 2026 he killed tens of thousands of his perceived opponents in just two days.
Reliance on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
In the early years of his leadership – coinciding with the end of the Iran-Iraq War – Khamenei relied on the IRGC to compensate for his lack of charismatic leadership. The IRGC, who had just returned from the war with Iraq and felt defeated by the acceptance of the ceasefire, gathered around the leader and were given a new mission; internal repression and the elimination of the new leader’s political rivals.
Throughout his rule, most of his advisers and close associates were commanders from the IRGC and, under his leadership, the IRGC gained organisational cohesion and penetrated all pillars of the system. Dominance over the government, parliament, and judiciary became the IRGC’s new mission. Khamenei and the IRGC rose to the peak of power in parallel and, in alliance with one another, they subjugated all parts of Iranian society.
The ‘Leader’s Office’
The IRGC and the vast administrative apparatus of the leader, known as the ‘Leader’s Office’, gained extensive control over Iran’s economy. Gradually, the IRGC became Iran’s superior security apparatus and was accountable to no one. The IRGC was the instrument that turned the leader into Iran’s supreme power, but it was clear that such a concentration of power would become problematic for the country after their death. The IRGC was the only institution he trusted and was considered the executor of all of Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.
Symbiosis between Khamenei and the IRGC
The IRGC’s comprehensive control over affairs enabled Khamenei to control and suppress any opposition, and to establish himself as the primary player. Under these conditions the path to political reform was blocked and the possibility of criticism and dissent disappeared. With the help of the IRGC, and by gradually closing the social space – especially through the repression of women and intellectuals – Khamenei completed his social domination.
By establishing parallel institutions, the leader sought to prevent any coup attempt, and in this he was successful. One of the reasons for creating multiple security institutions was governing through ‘divide and rule’. The IRGC was the backbone of the regime. The IRGC elevated the leader, and the leader elevated the IRGC. Street crackdowns carried out by the IRGC on the leader’s orders became a routine mechanism of government control.
Foreign policy
Another aspect of Khamenei’s governance was the foreign policy he implemented over several decades. Modelling himself on North Korean dictators, he adopted an approach that neither normalised relations with the West – lest it led to the opening-up of society – nor distanced himself so much as to result in a military attack and the overthrow of his government, as had happened in Iraq.
This policy severely weakened Iran’s economy because of the sanctions imposed from outside and, although people’s livelihoods worsened day by day, with inflation, recession, and the devaluation of the national currency making normal life difficult, these very sanctions, and the circumvention of them, provided an opportunity for Ali Khamenei and the IRGC to increase their wealth, their economic monopoly, and their privilege.
By supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon, Khamenei created an international network of smuggling and terrorist operations, with money laundering that extended from the Americas to Australia. By supporting Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war, he played a role in the killing of an estimated half a million Syrian citizens. Likewise, in Russia’s war on Ukraine, by fully supporting Russia, he played an effective role in prolonging the war on Moscow’s side.
All of Khamenei’s international missions were carried out by a branch of the IRGC known as the Quds Force.
Domestic repression
Over previous decades, Iranians repeatedly protested, but each time they were suppressed with an iron fist. Shocking reports from human rights organizations show the dire state of human rights during this regime’s rule. After China, Iran has the highest number of executions in the world.
Legacy
The Iran that emerged from Khamenei’s rule is a poor Iran with very high level of environmental pollution, high rates of migration and the consequent brain drain, chronic inflation and recession. Aside from deep social, economic, and political problems, perhaps his most important legacy is the IRGC; an armed institution with media outlets and financial resources, dominating governmental, legislative, and judicial institutions.
Now that Iran’s leader has been removed, the main question is what the future of Iran and the region will be in the presence of this terrorist institution. The IRGC are armed, ideological hardliners with apocalyptic ideas who oversee a complex network of terrorists in the region.
The fundamental question is what strategy the United States has devised to dismantle this system and restore calm to the region – especially following Khamenei’s death, as they attack neighbouring countries, seemingly without restraint.
The US will not be alone in this war and will have some of the Iranian people at its side – a people striving to free themselves from the misery of this bloody legacy with the help of the international community.
Perhaps it was unsurprising that, on the night the news of Khamenei’s killing was announced, Iranians around the world took to dancing and celebrating. For the primary victims of his mafia – the people of Iran – the death of the godfather of the largest international terrorist organization will never be an insignificant event.
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