Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei (born 1939) followed Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeini as supreme spiritual and political leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran. A favored Khomeini disciple, key revolutionary strategist, and innovative president, Khamenei was...

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Iranian leader of the world's Shia Islamic sect, has given up his position in an apparent move to defuse the growing political and economic crisis in his country. This development could signal the start of the return of the clergy...

Ali is a typical college student. There are dirty dishes stacked in the sink in his studio apartment in Tehran. A bedroll is tucked against the wall, and textbooks are scattered across an office desk. Tom Waits and Metallica CDs, along with a...

Iran's supreme leader accused the United States of damaging relations between Iran and Iraq and charged that American and Israeli agents were behind the Iraqi insurgency, state-run Iranian television said Tuesday.Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani that "Americans have been opposing improvement...

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei named a new head for the elite Revolutionary Guard, an organization Washington is looking to list as a terrorist group, state media announced Saturday.No reason was given for the change and it was not clear if the reshuffle would...