Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who shaped the country in its present form, maintained a fierce rivalry with the US, and ruled with an iron fist, was killed in Israeli and US strikes, a senior Israeli official told Reuters on Saturday. Iran has not confirmed this.Here’s a look at the man, his politics, and the nation that he has led for the past three-and-a-half decades.In Iran’s theocratic system, the Supreme Leader is the most powerful figure in the country ranking above the president, parliament, and judiciary. Khamenei commands the armed forces, appoints heads of the judiciary, state media, and key security agencies, and holds the power to dismiss elected officials, countermand legislation, and declare war or peace.His control also extends to foreign and military policy through his oversight of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Force (IRGC) and the Quds Force, which orchestrates Iran’s regional operations.Also Read | Who is Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and what is the Axis of ResistanceHis position is established on the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, or “guardianship of the jurist”, which gives a cleric ultimate sovereignty over an Islamic state. The ideology was developed by his predecessor Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, and enshrined in the constitution of 1979.Ali Khamenei was born in 1939, in the northern Iranian city of Mashhad. He was the second of eight children in a modest family headed by his father, a religious cleric. Khamenei followed his father’s footsteps, pursuing clerical studies in Qom from 1958 to 1964, before joining Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s movement against the Shah of Iran in 1962.After being imprisoned multiple times by the Shah’s regime, Khamenei emerged as a key figure in the 1979 revolution. He served as president from 1981 to 1989, steering Iran through the Iran-Iraq War, before succeeding Khomeini as Supreme Leader.Story continues below this adKhamenei’s early years reveal a man of eclectic tastes. He engaged with Iranian intellectuals, absorbing both secular and Islamist ideas. A lover of literature, he has lauded Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables as “the best novel that has been written in history,” telling state television officials in 2004, “Go read Les Misérables once. This… is a miracle in the world of novel writing.”What does Khamenei believe in?Khamenei views liberal democracy and capitalism as flawed, and sees the West as materialistic and Islamophobic. Yet, he is not wholly anti-Western. “Western culture is a combination of beautiful and ugly things,” he told a group of young Iranians in 1999. “A sensible nation… will take the good and add it to their own culture… and reject the bad.”His fundamental critique of western civilisation is that it is overly materialistic. “The West looks at only one dimension — the material,” he said in a meeting on development. In contrast, Islamic civilisation includes justice, prayer, independence, and “approaching the exalted God.” His ideal, thus, is not simply a strong Iran, but a spiritually superior one.Khamenei’s influences include Islamist thinkers like the Egyptian Islamic theorist Sayyid Qutb, who wrote “Islam without government and a Muslim nation without Islam are meaningless” and, of course, Ayatollah Khomeini, the fountainhead of the Islamic Revolution.Story continues below this adAnd like Khomeini, who referred to the US as “Great Satan” and Israel as “Little Satan”, Khamenei is known for his unabated hostility towards these two countries. After a Florida pastor threatened to burn the Quran in 2010, Khamenei insinuated there was a larger plot at play. “The operational command of these acts are in the hands of the system of hegemony and Zionist planning centres,” he said at the time.What has Khamenei done?Iranian analyst Mohsen Milani wrote in the Foreign Affairs magazine: “Khamenei has made it his mission to preserve the revolutionary identity of the state, particularly that it remains devoted to Islamic principles and opposed to the West.”Under Khamenei, Iran has become a regional power through asymmetric means. The Islamic Republic has funded, trained, and armed a network of proxies from Lebanon to Yemen, enabling Tehran to confront its enemies in Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the United States, without risking direct war. Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and various militias in Iraq and Syria have all been recipients of Iranian support.Also Read | What happens if Iran chooses to leave the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?Khamenei has also reshaped Iran’s economy through what he calls the “resistance” doctrine, a strategy aimed at making the country less vulnerable to international sanctions. This includes reducing reliance on oil, expanding trade with China and Russia, and cutting state subsidies. The efficacy of this doctrine is another matter altogether — the Iranian economy still leans heavily on oil, and subsidy cuts have sparked protests across the country.Story continues below this adKhamenei termed nuclear science as a marker of national pride and progress. For Khamenei, Iran’s right to enrich uranium is about not just energy but sovereignty. He has however claimed that Iran does not seek nuclear weapons and he permitted negotiations over the 2015 nuclear deal before criticising the US for pulling out.At home, Khamenei has orchestrated a political system designed to preserve his rule. He has stacked every avenue of government with loyalists making it difficult for moderates or reformists to gain influence. He has proven ruthless in suppressing dissent.