Ali Khamenei

When states are attacked, authority gravitates towards institutions capable of mobilising resources, enforcing discipline, and coordinating a military response

Public sentiment in Pakistan often mirrors wider reactions across the Muslim world, but its size, strategic location, and nuclear status amplify global consequences

A clerical member of the Guardian Council, he was selected to serve on the Leadership Council along with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei

Khamenei has struck a defiant tone amid growing protests against his regime, but a series of regional setbacks, coupled with an emboldened Trump, could finally bring it down

For decades, Iran's supreme leader—first Khomeini, then Khamenei—pursued a strategy of backing regional militias to fight Israel, but with the 'resistance axis' in tatters, Iran is left to fight alone

Two key candidates—Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Masud Pezeshkian—are promising to make a deal with the West to lift the sanctions, while Saeed Jalili is pushing for ties with non-Western countries

Khamenei continues to carry out Khomeini's vision, which is not only bent on the destruction of Israel but aspires to be the dominant regional power. To this end, Iran exercises 'strategic patience'.