Ali Khamenei

For two decades he was considered to be above the petty political squabbles, a cautious elder contemplating questions of faith and Islam while guiding his nation into the future. But Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose title of supreme leader makes him Iran's ultimate authority, has gotten his hands dirty.

In a move seen as an attempt to woo disenchanted moderates and reformists back into the political establishment, Iran's supreme leader said in comments published today that he was unconvinced the leaders of the recent anti-government unrest were acting on behalf of foreign interests, distancing himself from assertions made by hard-liners. But Ali Khamenei, the country's top political and religious authority, also asserted that the days of protest that followed the disputed June 12 reelection were part of a planned conspiracy to undermine the Islamic Republic.

Iran's top leader demanded an end to U.N. Security Council oversight of the country's nuclear program during a meeting Saturday with the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, state-run television reported. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, told International Atomic Energy Agency head Mohamed ElBaradei that the IAEA should exclusively handle Iranian nuclear questions -- not the Security Council.

Iran's highest authority lashed out against Israel on Friday with some of his harshest comments in recent memory about the Jewish state. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is Iran's top political and military figure, said his country's hostility to Israel extended beyond the government to the Israeli people as well. In saying so, he was brushing aside recent overtures by top Iranian officials to the Israeli public.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Thursday that if the United States attacked, Iran would strike American interests worldwide. Speaking to a gathering of air force commanders, Khamenei said, "The enemy knows well that any invasion would be followed by a comprehensive reaction to the invaders and their interests all over the world." "Some people say that the U.S.

Iran's supreme leader gave a ringing endorsement Saturday to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's foreign policy, suggesting that Iran's top authority favors an ultraconservative, hard-line bloc over moderate elements seeking rapprochement with the West. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is the final arbiter of political, military and religious decisions in Iran's government, which melds elements of a boisterous democratic republic with a clerical autocracy.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Western accusations that Iran was seeking nuclear weapons were a "sheer lie," and he declared that attempts to punish Tehran would jeopardize the world's oil supply. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dismissed the implied threat, saying Iran was too dependent on oil revenue to disrupt the flow of crude.

Iran's supreme leader agreed to a formula Wednesday that is expected to reinstate most of the thousands of parliamentary candidates who were disqualified from running, handing reformists a victory in their election battle with hard-line Islamic clerics. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in attempting a compromise to resolve the standoff over the election scheduled for Feb.

In a daring protest Tuesday, more than 100 reformist lawmakers accused Iran's supreme leader of allowing freedoms to be trampled and of rigging upcoming parliament elections in favor of Islamic hard-liners. The attack -- in a letter sent to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- raised political dissent to levels unimaginable just a few weeks ago and shattered taboos about public criticism of Iran's political and spiritual authority.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pardoned five Iranian Jews convicted three years ago of spying for Israel, a Jewish source told Reuters. The five were among 13 Jews whose arrest in 1999 and subsequent closed-door trial triggered widespread condemnation by Western governments and Jewish organizations. Ten of the Jews and two Muslims were sentenced in 2000 to prison terms of up to 13 years for taking part in a spy ring based in the southern city of Shiraz. Three were acquitted.