PARIS, France, July 1, 2026 (BSS/AFP) - Ali Khamenei suppressed dissent, kept

up confrontation with the US and steered a path between competing political

factions in over three-and-a-half decades as Iran's supreme leader.

But his domination of the Islamic republic came to an abrupt and bloody end

on the morning of February 28, when he was killed along with several close

family members in an Israeli air strike based on US intelligence on the first

day of a five-week war.

Yet the Khamenei era is in many ways not over -- power was swiftly passed to

his son Mojtaba, although he has yet to be seen in public since taking over

as the third supreme leader of the Islamic republic.

Meanwhile even after Ali Khamenei's death, his social media accounts on X and

Telegram regularly churn out past statements, while his image stares down

from billboards at Iranians, often in a triple portrait with his predecessor

Ruhollah Khomeini and his son Mojtaba.

As his funeral begins on Saturday, he is now referred in state media as the

Martyr Imam Khamenei, enshrining the spiritual status of a man who had been a

key figure in the Islamic republic since shortly after its inception.

- Political survivor -

Decades of experience as a political survivor could not protect him from the

torrent of bombs that also killed his son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law

and granddaughter.

Khamenei, age 86, had seen off a succession of crises throughout his rule

with a mixture of repression and political cunning since taking on the

lifetime post of leader of the Islamic revolution following the death of

Khomeini.

He overcame 1999 student demonstrations, 2009 mass protests sparked by a

disputed presidential election, and 2019 demonstrations that were rapidly and

brutally suppressed.

The 2022-2023 "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement sparked by the death in custody

of Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly

violating the strict dress code for women, was put down in a deadly

crackdown.

Khamenei was forced to go into hiding during the 12-day war against Israel in

June 2025, according to US media reports, which exposed deep Israeli

intelligence penetration of the Islamic republic that led to the killing of

key security officials in air strikes.

Before the latest war erupted in 2026, his rule was challenged by two nights

of mass street protests which were put down in a new crackdown by security

forces, that according to rights groups, left thousands dead.

Khamenei defiantly dismissed the protesters as "rioters" backed by Israel and

US.

There were also physical challenges, with his right arm partially paralysed

following an assassination attempt in 1981 that authorities have always

blamed on the People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) group, one-time allies of the

revolution now outlawed in the country.

He made no attempt to hide the disability with his inert right arm always

prominent in pictures -- an apparent proud display of the scars of the

revolution.

- 'Eerily reminiscent' -

Repeatedly arrested under the shah for his anti-imperialist activism,

Khamenei became Tehran's Friday prayer leader shortly after the Islamic

revolution and also served on the frontline during the Iran-Iraq war.

He was elected president in 1981 following the assassination of Mohammad Ali

Rajai, another attack blamed on the MEK.

During the 1980s, Khomeini's most likely successor was seen as the senior

cleric Ayatollah Hossein Montazeri but the revolutionary leader changed his

mind shortly before his death after Montazeri objected to the mass executions

of MEK members and other dissidents.

When Khomeini died and the Islamic republic's top clerical body, the Assembly

of Experts, met, it was Khamenei who they chose as leader.

Khamenei famously initially rejected the nomination, putting his head in his

hands in a show of despair and declaring, "I am opposed".

Over the course of his career Khamenei worked with six elected presidents, a

far less powerful position than supreme leader, including more moderate

figures like Mohammad Khatami who were allowed to make stabs at cautious

reform and rapprochement with the West.

A complex network of factions competed for his favour and influence,

including the Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Iranian

military.

But Khamenei always came down on the side of hardliners and confrontation

with the "Great Satan," the United States, and he refused to recognise the

existence of Israel.

"Ali Khamenei was the most influential actor in Iran, but he still had to

manage several competing power centres in the system," said Thomas Juneau,

professor at the University of Ottawa.

He is believed to have had six children, although only Mojtaba gained public

prominence.

It remains to be seen how he will wield power but a statement where Mojtaba

Khamenei said he backed talks with the US, despite having a "different view",

appeared to conjure up Ali Khamenei's political ghost.

The statement was "eerily reminiscent of his father's tradition," of staying

above the fray in politics, said Arash Azizi, lecturer at Yale University.

BSS/AFP/SSS/2054 hrs