Who is Iran’s supreme leader? Ali Khamenei vows not to surrender against Israel

Nearly a week after Israel’s surprise attack on Iran, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that Iran will “NOT surrender,” as Israel seeks to eliminate its nuclear program.

“War will be met with war, bombing with bombing, and strike with strike. Iran will not submit to any demands or dictates,” Khamenei said in comments carried by Tasnim, Iran’s semi-official state news agency.

His remarks follow a call from President Donald Trump to surrender.

Khamenei, who has led Iran for over 35 years, has gone into hiding in the wake of Israel’s surprise assault.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not ruled out targeting Khamenei amid the conflict, which has seen the two countries conduct daily aerial attacks.

Here’s what to know about the supreme leader:

When did Khamenei come to power?

Khamenei, 86, has led Iran since the death in 1989 of its founding supreme leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, who had led Iran for 10 years after toppling the country’s last shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Khomeini dismissed his would-be successor, Hossein-Ali Montazeri, and instead gave the position to Khamenei, who was elected as the new supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts following Khomeini’s death.

Before his decadeslong rule as the supreme leader, Khamenei served as president of Iran from 1981 to 1989.

The supreme leader is “effectively Iran’s leader for life, per the constitution,” according to the D.C.-based think tank Council on Foreign Relations.

“Iran’s constitution designates the office as head of state and affords it vast control under the theory that political authority springs from religious authority,” the organization said, noting the position’s powers include “setting national policies and supervising their implementation, as well as commanding the armed forces and appointing military chiefs and the heads of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and police.”

What happens if Khamenei is eliminated or overthrown?

Israel’s surprise operation hit at the heart of Iran’s nuclear program, striking key facilities and killing several nuclear scientists as well as high-ranking military leaders, according to Israeli officials.

ABC News and other outlets reported this week that Trump rejected an Israeli plan to assassinate Iran’s supreme leader, concerned that it would escalate the ongoing conflict.

Netanyahu told ABC News on Monday that targeting Khamenei would end, not escalate, the ongoing fight. Asked if Israel would target the supreme leader, Netanyahu said that Israel was “doing what we need to do.”

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz warned in a statement the following day that Khamenei’s fate could be similar to that of executed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if he continues to “commit war crimes and fire missiles at Israeli citizens.”

It is unclear who will succeed Khamenei in the event of his death, as no successor has been publicly named. It is also unclear if a successor will have the same degree of authority he has in the regime, according to Ray Takeyh, a senior fellow for Middle East studies with the Council on Foreign Relations, who said during a press briefing on the conflict that “other centers of power will have their own prerogatives and the regime will be much more chaotic in its decision-making.”

Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran — a coalition of dissident Iranian groups — told European lawmakers on Wednesday that Israel’s surprise attack represents “the beginning of a critical new chapter, both in Iran’s internal crisis and the broader dynamics of the region.” Only “regime change by the people of Iran and the organized resisters” can ensure regional peace, she said.

The question now, Takeyh said during the press briefing, is, “Can the society overwhelm the state even in its weakened condition?”

“I don’t have the answer to that question,” he said. “I think it’d be too glib to offer an answer to that question.”

Who is Reza Pahlavi?

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran who resides in the United States, has been advocating for a secular democratic Iran. He is the son of Iran’s last shah, who was deposed by the 1979 Iranian Revolution.

In recent days, Pahlavi, 64, has called on Iranians to rise up against the government in Tehran.

“We are sensing almost a state of collapse by the regime — by people beginning to defect, by relatives of the regime taking flight, by the leader himself hiding in an underground tunnel,” Pahlavi told ABC News Live on Tuesday. “I think that this is an opportunity that we have never had this far in the past four decades, and this is the best opportunity for us to finally overcome this regime and get rid of it.”

Pahlavi said on X that there is a “plan for Iran’s future” should the Islamic Republic fall.

“We are prepared for the first hundred days after the fall, for the transitional period, and for the establishment of a national and democratic government — by the Iranian people and for the Iranian people,” he said in a post on Tuesday.