Supreme Leader

TEHRAN, June 4 -- Iran's supreme leader dismissed President Obama's speech at Cairo University Thursday, saying the Muslim world continues to "hate America. " And he criticized the United States and its allies for asserting that Iran seeks nuclear weapons, which he insisted are forbidden under Iran's brand of Islam. Speaking shortly before Obama delivered his address, in which he called for a "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that "beautiful speeches"...

A look at the political power structure in Iran. SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI: Wields control over every major decision either directly or through a network of hand-picked loyalists and institutions, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard, the judiciary and intelligence services. GUARDIAN COUNCIL: Group of 12 experts in Islamic law who approve all candidates for high elected office and can veto parliamentary bills considered to be in violation of Iran's Islamic constitution.

TEHRAN — A proposal by Iran's supreme leader to radically alter the country's constitution and abolish the presidency is drawing praise from his supporters but criticism from influential politicians. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was appointed supreme leader for life in 1989 by Shiite Muslim clerics, said in a speech last week that, if deemed appropriate, Iran could do without a president. The post is currently held by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose 2009 reelection was disputed by opponents and led to months of...

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, delivered a lengthy, sweeping speech at the country's holiest site Thursday in which he suggested that he is open to nuclear talks, if not optimistic about their outcome. A day after Iran celebrated its new year , Khamenei, speaking at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, the country's second-largest city and his home town, covered a range of issues he deemed essential for Iran to address in the coming year, including the effect of sanctions, the country's...

TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader on Saturday denounced allegations by the United States of an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington, suggesting they were a pretext for further building an international consensus against Iran, state media reported . "They attempted to find an excuse by raising a meaningless and useless accusation against some Iranian nationals in America," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, speaking in...

This piece is part of an On Leadership special feature exploring the present-day Iran tensions in the context of leadership lessons from crises confronted by Presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Kennedy. The mounting confrontation between the United States and Iran is like a Cuban Missile Crisis in slow motion. Events are moving, seemingly inexorably, toward a showdown at which point President Obama will have to choose to either attack Iran's nuclear facilities or acquiesce in an Iranian nuclear bomb.

In a year when Iran will elect a new president and could face make-or-break decisions about its nuclear program, the country's most prominent political family appears poised to extend its influence, strengthening the rule of hard-line clerics as they struggle with other power centers. Larijani brothers now sit atop two of Iran's three branches of government, the parliament and the judiciary, positions they have used to attempt to foil populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speculation is rife that the...

TEHRAN, June 9 -- Three days before Iranians go to the polls to elect a president, one of the country's most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, issued an open letter on Tuesday complaining that the country's supreme leader has remained silent in the face of "insults, lies and false allegations" by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The unusual letter reflects the intensity of the Iranian election campaign, laying bare the deep political rifts and sore feelings within the country's leadership.

A look at the political power structure in Iran. SUPREME LEADER AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI: Wields control over every major decision either directly or through a network of hand-picked loyalists and institutions, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard, the judiciary and intelligence services. GUARDIAN COUNCIL: Group of 12 experts in Islamic law who approve all candidates for high elected office and can veto parliamentary bills considered to be in violation of Iran's Islamic constitution.

TEHRAN -- Iran's supreme leader, spurning what he described as several personal overtures from President Obama, warned Tuesday that negotiating with the United States would be "naive and perverted" and that Iranian politicians should not be "deceived" into starting such talks. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 70, said Obama has approached him several times through oral and written messages. It was the second time that Khamenei, who wields ultimate political and religious authority in Iran, has referred to the president's...

TEHRAN — Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a rare acknowledgment Saturday night of the economic challenges his country is facing. "This was a very difficult year for our economy," Ahmadinejad said during a live television interview in which he outlined his government's budget plan for the coming fiscal year. He accused the United States of using its vast economic might to exert unfair pressure on the much smaller Iranian economy. Earlier in the day, Ahmadinejad met with his top political rivals, brothers Ali and Sadeq...

In a year when Iran will elect a new president and could face make-or-break decisions about its nuclear program, the country's most prominent political family appears poised to extend its influence, strengthening the rule of hard-line clerics as they struggle with other power centers. Larijani brothers now sit atop two of Iran's three branches of government, the parliament and the judiciary, positions they have used to attempt to foil populist President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Speculation is rife that the...

A heated debate about who will be allowed to run in Iran's presidential election has erupted five months before the vote, stoking concerns about a repeat of the protests that followed the contested 2009 poll. At the heart of the controversy is whether the vote will be what critics of Iran's electoral system call "free" — that is, cast with a ballot that includes candidates from all of Iran's various political factions and not just principlists, the conservatives who are loyal to the Shiite Muslim clerical...

TEHRAN — Proposed changes in Iran's election laws are proving contentious, sparking a debate over who should decide which candidates can compete in June's contest to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The possible reforms and the controversy around them mark another round in the struggle between Ahmadinejad and his more conservative rivals, who hope to stymie any chance that an ally of the administration might continue its agenda, including the populist economic policies that many here believe have contributed to Iran's...

TEHRAN — For months, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been seen here as an increasingly marginal figure who may not be able to serve out his term, which ends next summer. But Ahmadinejad appears to have defied his political obituary once more. Battling stiff international sanctions over Iran's uranium-enrichment program and pondering possible negotiations with the United States, the country's supreme leader has called for national unity, giving Ahmadinejad a lifeline when he most needed it. Before the...

F oreign policy is generally a difficult area to fact-check — differences can be more of opinions than numbers — but that did not stop President Obama and Mitt Romney from making questionable claims. "Just a few weeks ago, you said you think we should have more troops in Iraq right now. . . . You said that we should still have troops in Iraq to this day. " — Obama "There was an effort on the part of the president to have a status-of-forces agreement, and I concurred in that and said that we...

TEHRAN — A leading Iranian banker has fled the country, the latest development in a $2.6 billion embezzlement scandal that opponents are linking to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mahmoud Reza Khavari, managing director of Bank Melli, Iran's largest state-owned bank, flew to Canada after the arrest of several top-level bankers in connection with a case described as the largest embezzlement in Iranian history, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Wednesday. Khavari is among 22 people being sought by Iran's chief...

TEHRAN — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's refusal to cut ties with his best friend and top adviser is damaging his presidency and could imperil his ability to keep his job, analysts here say. What started as a disagreement between Ahmadinejad and the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, over the forced resignation of Iran's intelligence minister last month has evolved into public attacks against the president and his adviser,...

FOUR MONTHS AGO, the Obama administration radiated optimism that a deal could be struck curbing the most dangerous parts of Iran's nuclear program. What's followed has been a dismal summer. Not only has Iran not agreed to stop its production of higher-enriched uranium, but it has increased its stockpile by 30 percent since May, according to a new report by international inspectors . Not only has it rejected proposals from the United States and five partners that it close an underground production facility near the city of Qom, but it has doubled the...

Either Israel is engaged in the most elaborate ruse since the Trojan horse or it is on the cusp of a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. What's alarming is not just Iran's increasing store of enriched uranium or the growing sophistication of its rocketry . It's also the increasingly menacing annihilationist threats emanating from Iran's leaders. Israel's existence is "an insult to all humanity," says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad . "Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the...