When Ali Khamenei was nominated by senior clerics to replace Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as Iran’s supreme leader in 1989, he insisted he was underqualified.
Khamenei, who has died at the age of 86 after joint US-Israeli air strikes on Saturday, told the clerics of the Assembly of Experts that one had “to really weep for Islamic society” that he was even considered.
Yet Khamenei went on to become one of the longest-reigning leaders in Iran’s modern history, his initial modesty later replaced by a reluctance to relinquish power and a reliance on hardliners to maintain it.
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