Who is Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, where is he now and why is he a potential target for Israel and US?

Israel said it launched a pre-emptive attack against ‌Iran on Saturday in co-ordination with the US, with multiple explosions ⁠reported in Tehran. The strike happened near the offices of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reports news agency AFP. After the attack, questions over the whereabouts of Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei grew.

Where is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

A source told Reuters that Khamenei was not in Tehran at the time of the strike and had already been moved to a secure location. No details were provided about where he had been taken or when the transfer happened.

The attack comes just hours after US president Donald Trump said that he is not happy with ongoing nuclear talks with Iran and asserted that his administration has to "make a big decision."According to Iranian sources, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left Tehran. He has been shifted to a “secure location.”


Khamenei also skipped the annual February 8 meeting, a decades-old ritual where Iran’s air force commanders usually pledge allegiance, amid rising tensions with Washington.

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Who is Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is the Middle East's longest-serving autocrat, consolidating near-absolute control in his roughly 37-year reign, reports Axios. Khamenei has wielded influence since the 1979 Iranian Revolution. He also served as defense minister and then supervised the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before being elected president in 1981.

The 86-year-old Islamic scholar has served as Iran’s Supreme Leader since 1989, succeeding the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the charismatic founder of the Islamic Republic who returned from exile to lead Iran’s 1979 revolution that toppled US ally Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Khamenei holds ultimate authority over the government, military, and judiciary, while also serving as the country’s spiritual leader. He has consistently maintained that Iran will never develop a nuclear weapon and that its nuclear programme is solely for civilian purposes.

He commands the armed forces, the elite Revolutionary Guard and oversees state-run media. He also has discretion over how the country spends revenue from some of the world's largest oil reserves.

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Khamenei has often relied on the military to suppress dissent. He regularly imprisons critics and uses force to quell protests. In 1999, his crackdown on student demonstrations led to at least one death and around 1,500 arrests, as per Axios. He also suppressed protests following the disputed 2009 presidential election, as well as the 2022 demonstrations demanding an end to the persecution of women and girls after Mahsa Amini’s death, who was accused of wearing her headscarf incorrectly.

More recently, multiple reports suggest that regime forces may have killed between 7,000 and 30,000 Iranians protesting economic conditions, though exact figures remain unclear. Khamenei has also ordered internet blackouts, including during these protests, to disrupt communications and limit international scrutiny of his regime.

Why Israel, US want to attack him?

Officials from US and Israel have previously issued threats against Khameini. In June, after the 12-day war of US-Israeli attacks on Iran, and Tehran’s retaliation against Israel, Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said Khamenei “cannot continue to exist”.

“A dictator like Khamenei who stands at the head of a state like Iran and has the horrible goal of destroying Israel – cannot continue to exist,” he said.

The same month, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Israel had not ruled out attempting to assassinate Khamenei, an act he said would “end” the long-running conflict between the US and Iran.

In the US, President Donald Trump has also made remarks appearing to threaten Khamenei. In an interview with ABC News earlier this month, Trump said the Iranian leader should be “very worried”, as the US amassed military assets in the region. In separate remarks, he said regime change in Iran would be “the best thing that could happen” and that “there are people” who could assume leadership, without elaborating.

As he ordered attacks on Iran last year, Trump then claimed Khamenei would be an “easy target” if the US decided to go after him.

“We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding,” said Trump. “He is an easy target, but is safe there – We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now.”