I, the Supreme: Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (leader.ir)
With Iran's presidential election approaching (it's scheduled for June 12), it's worth remembering who casts the ultimate vote in that odd democracy: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Ayatollah Khomeini's successor and "supreme leader." The presidency in that scheme is more foil and figurehead for Khamenei than executive leadership.
As Hooman Majd writes in The Ayatollah Begs to Differ (Doubleday, 2008), Ali Khamenei “has, in the years since Khomeini’s death elevated him to the post, carefully balanced his use of what is arguably unlimited power with the cultivation of a public perception that the elected presidents of the republic are responsible for the ordinary welfare and woes of the people, and their general dissatisfaction, if they have any, with the government.”
In other words, Khamenei continues to take the credit for what goes right with the Islamic Republic of Iran while deflecting all blame on the president, when necessary, for what goes wrong. Khamenei so far fhas fulfilled Khomeini’s intentions—ably maintaining his hold on power, which has been synonymous with the Iranian Revolution, while using the inherently unaccountable political system to delay a reckoning with the economic and social failures of the revolution.
Whether Khamenei is a conservative or a reformer is no longer as relevant as whose side he thinks is best to put forward through the presidency as a means of placating popular will and deflecting dissatisfaction with the ultimate authority in the country: Khamenei himself.
Read my new profile of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
See Also:
- What's a "Supreme Leader"?
- Profile: Mohammed Khatami
- Iran: Country Profile
- Iran's Nuclear Weapons Program
- Analysis: Obama's "New Day" Opening to Iran
- Putting Weapons Sales First: Bush Jeopardizes Iran Sanctions
- The Arms-for-Hostages Iran-Contra Scandal
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