Report: Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Dead

January 4, 2007

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The online blog Pajamas Media reported Jan. 4 that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died at age 67, citing an unnamed source. The blog said that Farideh Vafai, a spokeswoman for Reza Pahlavi, the former shah of Iran, said, “We cannot confirm this news. We have heard rumors but so far have no confirmation.” The reliability of this information is unknown.

Iranians have speculated for sometime about Khamenei’s health. But talk of Khamenei’s health is taboo and officials have denied he is seriously ill, even though United States sources had previously said Khamenei had cancer. He is widely regarded as the figurehead of mullahs’ regime. The survivor of an assassination attempt, his supporters call him a “living martyr”, and Iranians call him “cholaaq ali gedaa”.

The country’s supreme leader since 1989, Khamenei succeeded the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, infamous mullah Khomeini, as president in 1981 and served two terms. His death may trigger a power struggle within mullahs’ regime, according to observers.

Three possible successors to Khamenei include: Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba; Iran’s former reformist president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; and Gholam Ali Mesbah Yazdi, the ultra-conservative ayatollah who is considered the spiritual father of Iran’s current hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. All mullahs.

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