World
Everything you need to know about Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A week after Israel launched a surprise attack on Iran aiming to wipe out its nuclear program, all eyes are now on the country’s reclusive supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Thursday, following an Iranian missile strike that hit an Israeli hospital, Israel Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that “Khamenei will be held accountable for his crimes,” adding during a visit to one of the impact sites that “a person like that should not exist,” later calling him “the modern day Hitler,” according to the Times of Israel.
Over decades of rule, Khamenei has built an impenetrable circle around him both inside and outside of Iran. Now, with Israel taking out some of his closest aides and senior security figures, as well as significantly weakening its militant Islamic allies across the region, the supreme leader is beginning to look increasingly isolated.
IRAN STRIKES MAJOR ISRAELI HOSPITAL AFTER CLAIMING ISRAEL HIT ITS ARAK HEAVY WATER REACTOR
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei is standing with military leaders. (AP)
“He calls himself a revolutionary, not a diplomat,” Dr. Meir Javedanfar, a lecturer in Iran Studies at Reichman University near Tel Aviv who grew up in Tehran, told Fox News Digital, adding that he sees himself as a “revolutionary.”
On Wednesday, that militancy and determination to stay in power came through in statements by Khamenei, who said the “Iranian nation will not surrender” and “war will be met with war, bombing with bombing, and strike with strike,” according to local media reports.
Who is Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?
Born in 1939 to a religious but modest family in Mashad, eastern Iran, Khamenei was among the Islamist activists who played an instrumental role in the pivotal 1979 revolution to overthrow the U.S.-backed shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
ISRAEL-IRAN CONFLICT: LIVE UPDATES
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was President of Iran twice and a close ally of the country’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeni. (Getty images)
A close ally of Iran’s first supreme leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution and founded the Islamic Republic, Khamenei emerged as a trusted lieutenant, helping to promote the new regime’s concept of religiously-dominated governance.
For much of the 1980s, he served as Iran’s president, a largely ceremonious role. Additionally, when Khomeini died in 1989, Khamenei, who according to some reports was not yet qualified for the position, rose to become the country’s supreme leader.
Since then, Khamenei has worked to consolidate his absolute power, tightening his grip on the country’s political, military and security apparatus, while cracking down on dissent and taking a firm stand against progressive ideas, the West and Israel.
AMERICA’S IRAN DILEMMA: HOW TO STRIKE FORDOW WITHOUT LOSING SIGHT OF CHINA THREAT
More on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran
Lisa Daftari, an expert on Iran and editor-in-chief of The Foreign Desk, told Fox News Digital, “Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s rule has been marked by unrelenting brutality and repression, both within Iran and beyond its borders. Under his direct command, the regime has executed hundreds of prisoners in just the past year, including women, and continues to hold the world record for executions and torture.
“The state police and notorious ‘morality police,’ all under Khamenei’s control, enforce a severe interpretation of Sharia law, violently suppressing dissent and targeting women and minorities. His apparatus has not only silenced opponents at home through mass arrests, torture, and extrajudicial killings, but has also orchestrated assassinations of dissidents abroad and exported terror across the region.”
Daftari concluded, “Khamenei’s regime is responsible for the deaths of countless Iranians and even Americans, with blood on his hands from both domestic crackdowns and international violence. For almost five decades, Iran has been run as a police state, where fear, surveillance, and systematic human rights abuses are tools of governance and methods of regime survival.”
FOX NEWS POLL: VOTERS THINK IRAN POSES A REAL THREAT TO US SECURITY, BUT SPLIT ON ISRAEL’S STRIKES
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, greets then-Syrian President Bashar Assad in Tehran, Iran, on Feb. 25, 2019. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP, File)
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s political history
Khamenei has also invested heavily in the so-called axis of resistance across the region, including backing the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi movement in Yemen and other militant militias. Many of these allies, as well as the regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, have collapsed over the last year and a half under Israeli military pressure.
Inside Iran, Khamenei’s conservative-style of leadership has faced challenges over the years, including briefly in 2009 following elections where Khamenei declared victory for the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sparking massive popular demonstrations – with some protestors calling for Khamenei’s downfall.
Mass protests also broke out in the autumn of 2022 after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old, died while detained by the morality police for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly. The protests were brutally put down, with many of those arrested put to death by his regime.
‘INSTINCTS FOR RESTRAINT’: SENATE DIVIDED OVER WHO GETS TO DECLARE WAR
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, meets Secretary General of the Islamic Jihad Movement Ziyad al-Nakhalah, left, and the former head of the Hamas terror group Ismail Haniyeh, who was assassinated one day after this photo was taken, Tehran, Iran, on July 30, 2024. (Iranian Leader Press Office / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
However, according to the Council For Foreign Relations, Iran’s supreme leader remains “leader for life” under a clerical ruling system that puts him at the head of state and affords him vast control derived from religious authority.
“When he was a young man, he studied the writings of the founders of Muslim Brotherhood, and always believed in militant Islam,” said Javedanfar, adding that he has also “always been anti-Israel to the point of antisemitism.”
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to the crowd while attending a ceremony marking the 30th death anniversary of the late revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, shown in the poster at rear, at his mausoleum just outside Tehran, Iran, on Tuesday, June 4, 2019. Ayatollah Khamenei said his country will continue resisting U.S. economic and political pressure on his country. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
“I think he believes in confronting Israel in every means possible,” he said, noting that there are no signs Khamenei is interested in backing down.
“I’m sure many people had warned him that supporting Hamas after October 7, and Hezbollah and other groups could bring war to Iran’s territory but he obviously, he didn’t listen,” Javedanfar said.
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 18, 2025
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 17, 2025
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 16, 2025
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 15, 2025
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 14, 2025
Fox News Digital live coverage: Israel-Iran conflict: June 13, 2025
World
Israeli Strikes Kill a Journalist and Injure Another in Lebanon
Israeli strikes killed one journalist and wounded another in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, rattling a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said the Israeli military had targeted the journalists in the town of Tayri, where they took shelter in a nearby house after an airstrike struck a vehicle in front of the car they were traveling in. About an hour and a half later, a second strike hit the house they were hiding in, according to a statement by a Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which employed the journalist who was killed.
The Lebanese Red Cross said its teams came under fire while trying to evacuate the journalists from the house, forcing them to withdraw. The rescue crews were targeted by a warning strike and machine-gun fire, the Lebanese health ministry said.
Zeinab Faraj, a photojournalist, was rescued from the house. The other journalist, Amal Khalil, who was a reporter for Al-Akhbar, remained trapped under rubble for hours before emergency medics recovered her body, according to the Lebanese Civil Defense.
In addition to Ms. Khalil, the two people in the car in front of her were killed in the strikes, Al-Akhbar reported.
Amid the 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon, Israel has continued strikes against what it says are Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon, citing its right to self-defense. Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed militia group, said that it had fired rockets and drones into Israel on Tuesday in response to what it said were violations of the cease-fire. Earlier on Wednesday, the Lebanese News Agency reported that an Israeli drone strike killed one person and wounded two others in another part of the country.
The Lebanese health ministry called the strikes in Tayri a “blatant double breach, involving both the obstruction of rescue efforts for a civilian known for her media and humanitarian work, and the direct targeting of an ambulance clearly marked with the Red Cross.”
The Israeli military denied in a statement that it had prevented rescuers from reaching the injured journalists, and said the incident was under investigation.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said Israeli forces had spotted two vehicles emerging from a military building used by Hezbollah. The military observed the vehicles cross what the spokeswoman called the forward defense line, determining the move to be a violation of the truce agreement.
The spokeswoman confirmed that the Israeli military had struck one of the vehicles and the building some of the occupants of the second vehicle had taken shelter in.
Ms. Khalil had covered southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah exercises strong control, since at least 2006. In a tribute to Ms. Khalil, a colleague from Al-Akhbar said she embodied the resilience of the southern Lebanese through her relentless reporting, refusing to leave the front lines of war where thousands of Lebanese had been displaced.
“As with every act of aggression, wearing a press vest did not protect those who wore it from the treachery of the Israeli enemy,” Al-Akhbar said in a statement. “Instead, it has become a danger to journalists’ lives, as part of a systematic Israeli policy aimed at silencing anyone who seeks to expose the crimes and practices of the occupation.”
In a forceful statement on social media, Nawaf Salam, the Lebanese prime minister, accused the Israeli military of war crimes for targeting journalists and obstructing access to medical aid. He said that Lebanon would pursue action to ensure Israel is held accountable with international bodies.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that it was outraged by the attack, and that it raised serious concerns of deliberate targeting.
“The repeated strikes on the same location, the targeting of an area where journalists were sheltering, and the obstruction of medical and humanitarian access constitute a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” said Sara Qudah, CPJ’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa.
World
Former Mexican beauty queen found shot dead as investigators examine possible family involvement: reports
NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!
A former Mexican beauty queen was found shot to death in her Mexico City apartment, with investigators examining the possible involvement of her mother-in-law, according to local reports.
Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead inside an apartment in the Polanco neighborhood, one of the city’s most affluent areas, Reporte Índigo, a Mexico-based news outlet, reported.
Authorities said the death is being investigated as a homicide, after initial findings indicated she suffered a gunshot wound to the head. Emergency responders were called to the scene, where paramedics confirmed she showed no signs of life.
Prosecutors are investigating whether Flores Gómez’s mother-in-law, Erika María, as well as a man described in reports as her partner or husband, may have been involved in her death.
CALIFORNIA HIKER’S BODY FOUND NAKED IN BIG SUR BACKCOUNTRY
Carolina Flores Gómez was found shot dead in her luxury apartment April 15 in Mexico City. Her mother-in-law has been named the main suspect in the suspected homicide. (Jam Press)
The man, identified as Alejandro, accused his mother of killing Flores Gómez, Mexican news outlet Azteca Guerrero reported.
The outlet also reported that the woman’s mother-in-law was present at the scene when the gun was fired and that authorities are looking into the timeline of when the incident was reported.
WIDOW, SON OF LATE CHICAGO COMMISSIONER FOUND SHOT DEAD INSIDE HOME IN SUSPECTED HOMICIDE
Mexican prosecutors have opened a homicide with intent case in the death of former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez. (Jam Press)
Preliminary reports cited by Mexican news outlet Diario Puntual indicate that a security guard at the building did not hear gunshots, adding uncertainty about how the crime occurred.
Authorities in Baja California, Mexico, also responded to the case, Diario Puntual reported.
CIA PERSONNEL KILLED IN MEXICO CRASH TIED TO CARTEL OPERATION; QUESTIONS MOUNT OVER US ROLE
Former beauty queen Carolina Flores Gómez, 27, was found dead in her Mexico City apartment. (Jam Press)
Baja California Gov. Marina del Pilar Ávila Olmeda expressed solidarity with the victim’s family and called for the case to be clarified.
State prosecutor María Elena Andrade Ramírez also said there is coordination with Mexico City authorities to support the investigation.
Flores Gómez previously competed in beauty pageants and was crowned Miss Teen Universe Baja California in 2017.
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP
The case has drawn attention in Mexico amid ongoing concerns about violence against women, with advocacy groups calling for a thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death.
The investigation into the matter is open and ongoing.
World
‘Blockade and threats’: Iran blames US siege of ports for stalled talks
Israeli attacks on Lebanon killed at least five people on Wednesday, including Lebanese journalist Amal Khalil, in what was described as a ‘heinous crime’ by the government.
Published On 23 Apr 2026
-
Detroit, MI26 minutes agoThings to do in Metro Detroit, April 24 and beyond
-
San Francisco, CA38 minutes agoCA to open 3 new state parks and expand others, including in Bay Area: Here’s where
-
Dallas, TX44 minutes agoWild vs. Stars Game 3: Key takeaways as Dallas takes series lead on Wyatt Johnston’s 2OT winner
-
Miami, FL51 minutes agoMiami-Dade deputies detain elderly father who they say shot and killed his son after a domestic dispute
-
Boston, MA56 minutes agoBoston has one of the best public markets in the country, says USA TODAY
-
Denver, CO1 hour agoRed flag fatigue? Colorado sees near-record number of critical fire days
-
Seattle, WA1 hour agoFOLLOWUP: West Seattle pickleball players band together to save court access
-
San Diego, CA1 hour agoPadres sign Giolito to 1-year deal with option for '27