Iran: Past positions and employment of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 24 November 1999 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | IRN33259.E |
| Reference | 7 |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Iran: Past positions and employment of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 24 November 1999, IRN33259.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6ad5b18.html [accessed 17 September 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
There are various published versions of Khamenei's name, including H.E. Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei (Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, n.d.), Ali Hosein Khameneh-ei (Moaddel 1993, 202), Ali Khamene'i (Katzman 1993, 189), Ali Hoseini-Khamenei (The World Factbook 1999 1999), Hojatalislam Khamanei (Hiro 1987, 159), Ali Hussein Khamanei (ibid., 429), Hodjat-al-Islam Ali Khamenei (Hunter 1992, 159), Ali Khamenei (Zabih 1988, 274; AFP 9 July 1996), and H.I. Khamenei (ibid., 144).
The following biography of Khamenei is taken from the Website of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Ottawa:
During the rule of the deposed shah, Ay. Khamenei was a favourite pupil of Imam Khomeini, the leader of the Islamic Revolution, he was also considered to be one of the most eminent and dependable leaders of the movement of the Iranian Muslims, this movement entered a new phase in 1962 after Imam Khomini`s pronouncements against the Shah regime.
In the course of these struggles, Ay. Khamenei was arrested many times and spent three years in prison between 1964 and 1978. He was also exiled for almost a year.
In 1978, upon return from exile and the height of the revolutionary of the Iranian Muslims, he, together with a few close associates led the struggle of the people in Khorasan.
Later, in the same year when Leader of the Revolution was temporarily in Paris, he was selected as a member of the government of the Islamic Republic of IRAN. He was entrusted with the responsibility of representing the Revolutionary Council in the Army as well as Deputy for Revolutionary Affairs at the National Ministry of Defence and some time later. He was appointed to the post of the Revolutionary guards.
At about this time, Imam Khomeini chose him to lead the Friday congregational Prayers in Tehran and in 1980 he was elected to Islamic Consultative Assembly by the people of Tehran. After the formation of the Supreme Council of Defence, Ay. Khamenei joined it as the representative of Imam Khomeini.
Ay. Khamenei was one of the founding members of the Islamic Republic Party in IRAN and held the post of the Secretary-General of the Party.
Ay. Khamenei was the victim of an assassination attempt on 27th June 1981. having delivered an important speech at the consultative assembly, which ended in the dismissal of Bani-Sader from the Presidency of IRAN, he was addressing the faithful at poor residential area in Tehran, after leading the congregational prayer, when a time-bomb exploded nearby which injured him in the hand, chest and face.
In 1981, following the martyrdom of the second President of the Islamic republic of Iran, he becomes a candidate and, in September of the same year, he was elected the Third President of the Islamic Republic of Iran with %95 of the votes cast in his favour by the Iranian people (the total number of votes was 16,847,717). He was reelected as president in 1985 for a second four-year term.
Ay. Khamenei heads the Supreme Council of Defence and the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution.
Since the beginning of the imposed war, he has often visited various war fronts and has often inspected the frontline in order to help remove any shortcoming or to advise on organizational matters.
In 4th June 1989, One day after demise of Imam Khomeini, Assembly of Experts closed Ayatollah Khamenei to lead the Islamic Revolution of IRAN. Since 1994, Ayatollah Khamenei has been introduced as the Religious authority in religious authority for Shi`ait people in the world by the Ulama from different countries (n.d.).
Dilip Hiro corroborates the Embassy's biography in the following brief outline of Khamenei, beginning in the mid 1960s:
During the next decade he was arrested six times for his anti-Shah activities. His release from jail in 1975 was followed by an internal exile to Isranshahr in Baluchistan-Sistan. An active leader of the revolutionary movement of 1977-78, he was one of the first appointees to the Islamic Revolutionary Council. He was one of the founders of the Islamic Republican Party. Later he became the IRC's representative at the defence ministry. He headed the political-ideological bureau of the military, which was charged with inculcating military personnel with Islamic ideology and keeping a watchful eye on the officer corps. Following the death of Ayatollah Taleqani [in September 1979], Khomeini appointed Khamanei as the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, a position of considerable power and prestige. He was elected to the Majlis and was active in IRP politics. But he was not present at the fateful 28 June 1981 IRP meeting. This happened because only a day earlier he had been the target of an assassination attempt. As he was delivering a sermon a south Tehran mosque a bomb, hidden in a tape recorder, exploded. The blast injured his arm and lung, and ruptured his vocal cords (1987, 197-98).
Sepehr Zabih states that Khamenei was "the first cleric to be appointed Deputy Minister of National Defence" and that this was "early in the Provisional Government" (1988, 144) and that he was still in this position in February 1980 (ibid., 123). The author writes that Khamenei "gave the highest priority to the Islamisation of the armed forces and the continuation of the purge to ensure the military's loyalty to the Islamic Republic" (1988, 229).
Several sources state that Khamenei was a prominent member of the Islamic Republican Party (IRP) (Katzmen 1993, 52; Hiro 1987, 162; Moaddel 1993, 202). Mansoor Moaddel identifies him as one of its primary organizers "right after the revolution" and says that "the IRP faced the opposition of other power contenders, including the liberals, the Mojahedin, and the Left" (ibid.). Hiro states that at the end of August 1981 Khamenei was "the new IRP general secretary" and that at the time he was on a Mujahedin "hit list" (1987, 194).
In writing about the Revolutionary Guard, Katzman states that Rafsanjani and Khamenei,
subsequently served in succession as "Guard Supervisor" Although, as key IRP and Revolutionary Council members Rafsanjani and Khamene'i were important in cementing the IRP's alliance with the Guard/MIR/nonclerical militant wing of the regime, neither was enthusiastically supported by the Guard as Supervisor. Rafsanjani served in the position only one month (Oct-Nov 1979) until being succeeded by Khamene'i, who a Stockholm newspaper claimed "was reluctantly accepted as [the Guard's] new leader." Although both were more radical than Lahuti [previous Supervisor], they were undoubtedly viewed as political commissars imposed on, rather than from, the Guard itself. Neither was successful in imposing structure on or discipline on the still disorganized Revolutionary Guard.
Ali Khamene'i's tenure as Guard Supervisor lasted through the early 1980 election of the generally moderate noncleric Abol Hassan Bani-Sadr as the Islamic Republic's first President (1993, 52-53).
Khamenei became President of Iran on 13 October 1981 (Hiro 1987, 198; Katzman 1993, 39).
Khamenei became the leader of the Islamic Revolution, or velayat-e-faqih (supreme leader) upon the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989 (AFP 9 July 1996; The World Factbook 1999; Katzman 1993, 38). Kenneth Katzman states:
The position of faqih, as originally conceived, was to be held by a cleric who was a religious source of emulation (marja taqlid), eminently qualified as an Islamic jurist, an efficient administrator, and who "enjoyed the confidence of the majority of the people as leader." In Article 110 of the Constitution, the faqih was granted sweeping powers to appoint other high ranking officials; approve Presidential candidates and dismiss incompetent incumbents; serve as Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces (regular and Guard); appoint and dismiss regular and Guard commanders; and organize the Supreme Defense Council, Iran's highest military decisionmaking body. It was intended that this melding of supreme religious and political authority would ensure Islamization of the government and society.
However, inhabited now by Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i (formerly Iran's President during 1981-89) the institution is far weaker. In the new Constitution, ratified on July 28, 1989 (about two months after Khomeini's death), new formal powers had to be added to the position of velayat-e-faqih to compensate for the Khamene'i's diminished personal authority as compared to Khomeini. Currently, Khamene'i's pronouncements are not greeted with automatic support, he has not been able to contain infighting as Khomeini did, and he is viewed by many as less politically skilled and effective than President Rafsanjani, to whom Khamenei is formally superior.
The position has also suffered on religious grounds. Khamene'i was promoted to Ayatollah when he succeeded Khomeini, a clear violation of the original intent that the faqih hold unquestionable religious credentials (ibid., 38-39).
Zabih describes Khamenei as a "junior cleric" (1998, 257), while Katzman claims he was a "mid ranking cleric" (1993, 52).
Shireen Hunter states that President Rafsanjani was appointed as commander in chief of the armed forces for only two months before "relinquishing" the position to Ayatollah Khamenei (1992, 40). In addition, other sources state that as President, Khamenei was head of the SDC (Zabih 1988, 193; Katzman 1993, 131; Hiro 1987, 212). Zabih refers to a December 1985 meeting of the SDC under the chairmanship of Khamenei (1988, 213), Katzman states that he was chairman in 1985, while Hiro refers to his chairmanship in July 1982 (1987, 212). Writing in 1988 when Khamenei was still president, Zabih states that there are constitutional provisions placing Khamenei as both commander-in-chief and SDC chairman (223).
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
Agence France Presse (AFP). 9 July 1996. "Iran Enshrines New Islamic Penal Code." (Global Newsbank)
Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ottawa. n.d. "Biography of H.E. Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, The Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Hiro, Dilip. 1987. Iran Under the Ayatollahs. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd.
Hunter, Shireen. 1992. Iran After Khomeini. New York: Praeger Publishers.
Katzman, Kenneth. 1993. The Warriors of Islam: Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, Inc..
Moaddel, Mansoor. 1993. Class, Politics, and Ideology in the Iranian Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press.
The World Factbook 1998. 1999. "Iran.". Central Intelligence Agency, United States. [Internet]
Zabih, Sepehr. 1988. The Iranian Military in Revolution and War. New York: Routledge, Chapman and Hall, Inc.