Ayatollah Ali Khamenei News

crude oil was trading at a $6.86 per barrel discount to the May contract of $104.53 at the time of writing. On 27 February, a day before the war began, it was just the opposite: the June contract was at a slight premium of 39 cents to the May contract, which quoted at $72.48, as per Bloomberg.Such flipping of discounts between near and far months—backwardation or inversion in technical parlance—points to supply disruptions due to the West Asia war.

Every month, Mint Plain Facts brings out an update on key global data to thread together the biggest developments in the world that are worth paying attention to. The accompanying analysis and charts explain how each story is creating ripples on the global stage, where it is headed in the coming weeks, and whether it can impact India.Here are the five key global events:After US and Israel air strikes on 28 February killed Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the West Asian nation has been fighting a high-risk survival war.It has responded to the US-Israel offensive, mostly targeting its capital, Tehran, by attacking nearly all nearby Gulf countries, widening the conflict.

This week the focus is on the widening war in West Asia, which matters to us as there are 9-10 million Indian expatriates in the region.It’s now day 7 of Operation Epic Fury, launched jointly by the US and Israel on 28 February. It’s what we were all warned about for years, perhaps even decades – a conflagration in West Asia. As it stood, Iran was at its weakest in decades and Israel perhaps saw it as too good an opportunity to pass up.

West Asia conflict could ease.The benchmark Nifty50 index recovered close to half of its recent losses in the last hour on Thursday, as reports emerged that Iran had reached out to the US for talks to end the war, improving risk appetite. The news coincided with the weekly expiry of Sensex options on Thursday, which also forced the traders to square off their positions in panic.The US and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran on Saturday that killed its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, triggering retaliation and fuelling a wider regional conflict in West Asia, dragging stock markets around the world lower.Over two trading sessions starting Monday, the Nifty50 had fallen 695 points, of which 285 points—about 41%—were recouped on Thursday.

Those who view President Donald Trump’s strikes on Iran as a blow to China should think again. Beijing will manage any potential leadership change in Tehran as long as the oil keeps flowing, a summit with Trump and President Xi Jinping stays on track, and Washington handles Taiwan—China’s most sensitive red line—with care. Xi’s strategy is closer to the ancient Chinese phrase that notes the benefit of sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight: conserve strength while others exhaust themselves, and intervene only if core interests are directly threatened.Beijing doesn’t think of alliances the way the US does.

assassination of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, which has raised hopes of a speedy end to the conflict, regime change in Teheran, peace in the region and the stability that markets crave. Iran's state media confirmed that Khamenei died on the first day of military assault by the US and Israel."Markets could actually rally on hopes of stability in the region in the days ahead after the confirmed death of the supreme leader," said Nirmal Jain, founder of IIFL Group.

However, such talks have made no progress since Trump in his first term unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran's nuclear deal with world powers in 2018. In the years since, regional tensions have boiled over into attacks at sea and on land. Then came the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, which saw Israel target militant group leaders across Iran's self-described «Axis of Resistance». Now, as the US conducts intense airstrikes targeting the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen, the risk of military action targeting Iran's nuclear programme remains on the table. «We don't avoid talks; it's the breach of promises that has caused issues for us so far,» Pezeshkian said in televised remarks during a Cabinet meeting. «They must prove that they can build trust.»

state-sponsored vigilantism" to crush dissent after the «Women, Life, Freedom» protests in 2022, a UN investigation said Friday. Iran is making «concerted state efforts to stifle dissent, perpetuating a climate of fear and systematic impunity», the United Nations' Independent International Fact-Finding Mission said in a new report. These involve «the increased use of technology and surveillance, including through state-sponsored vigilantism». Iran was rocked by demonstrations after the September 2022 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who had been arrested for allegedly violating the strict dress rule for women based on Islamic sharia law. Widespread anger led to weeks of taboo-breaking protests against the Islamic republic's system of government under supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran's top diplomat said Wednesday an Arab country will soon deliver it a letter from US President Donald Trump, who has called for striking a nuclear deal with the Islamic republic. «The letter has not reached us yet but an envoy from an Arab country is set to deliver it soon in Tehran,» Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told reporters after a cabinet meeting. He did not elaborate on the identity of the Arab country or the timing of the letter's delivery. On Friday, Trump said he wrote a letter to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei calling for talks to forge a new deal on Tehran's nuclear programme, or face a potential military option. But Iran has rejected talks under «maximum pressure» policy that Trump reinstated after his return to the White House in January.

Iran's theocratic government, it keeps getting worse. Its decades-long strategy of building an «Axis of Resistance» supporting militant groups and proxies around the region is falling apart. First came the crushing Israeli campaign in Gaza triggered by the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Iranian-backed Hamas. That war spawned another in Lebanon, where Israel has mauled Iran's most powerful ally, Hezbollah, even as Israel has launched successful airstrikes openly inside of Iran for the first time. And now Iran's longtime stalwart ally and client in Syria, President Bashar Assad, is gone. As dawn broke Sunday, rebel forces completed a lightning offensive by seizing the ancient capital of Damascus and tearing down symbols of more than 50 years of Assad's rule over the Mideast crossroads.

The stakes are high, with speculation about Khamenei's successor and the broader implications for Iran's political landscape. Iranian journalist and analyst Ashkan Safaei Hakimi outlines two main scenarios: one where a new leader attempts to improve relations with the West, likely only creating a perception of reform, and another where political instability leads to a popular uprising and potential regime change. Khamenei has been Iran's supreme leader for nearly three decades, holding immense power over major issues like foreign policy and the nuclear program. Speculation about his health intensified after an October 27 New York Times report suggested his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, might be his successor. Over the weekend, rumors surfaced that Khamenei was in a coma, but Iranian state media countered these claims by publishing a photo of him meeting with Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani.

Iranian-American journalist who once worked for a U.S. government-funded broadcaster is believed to have been detained by Iran for months now, authorities said Sunday, further raising the stakes as Tehran threatens to retaliate over an Israeli attack on the country. The imprisonment of Reza Valizadeh, acknowledged to The Associated Press by the U.S. State Department, came as Iran marked the 45th anniversary of the American Embassy takeover and hostage crisis on Sunday. It also followed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatening both Israel and the U.S. the day before with «a crushing response» as long-range B-52 bombers reached the Middle East in an attempt to deter Tehran. Valizadeh had worked for Radio Farda, an outlet under Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty that's overseen by the U.S. Agency for Global Media. In February, he wrote on the social platform X that his family members had been detained in an effort to see him return to Iran.

Iran's leadership and allies are bracing for what they would regard as a dreadful outcome of the imminent U.S. presidential election: A return to power of Donald Trump. Opinion polls suggest the Republican Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris remain locked in a close contest. But Iranian leaders and their regional allies in Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen are concerned that Trump could well triumph on Nov. 5 and this could spell more trouble for them. Iran's main concern is the potential for Trump to empower Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike Iran's nuclear sites, conduct targeted assassinations and reimpose his «maximum pressure policy» through heightened sanctions on their oil industry, according to Iranian, Arab and Western officials. They anticipate that Trump, who was president in 2017-21, will exert utmost pressure on Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to cave in by accepting a nuclear containment deal on terms set by himself and Israel.

Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to Iran's supreme leader, said on Friday that Tehran is likely to increase the range of its ballistic missiles and possibly review its nuclear doctrine, amid growing tensions with arch-enemy Israel and tit-for-tat missile and airstrikes. Asked by Lebanon-based pro-Iran broadcaster Al-Mayadeen whether Iran was ready if conflict were to expand after the recent strikes, Kharrazi said Iran was likely to up the range of its ballistic missiles beyond a self-imposed limit of 2,000 km (1,250 miles). He said that although Iran has the technical capability to produce nuclear weapons, it is currently held back by a fatwa, or religious decree, issued in the early 2000s by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iranian authorities have lifted a ban on imports of new iPhone 14, 15 and 16 models by the U.S. tech giant Apple

Hezbollah in Lebanon overnight and was assessing the damage on Friday after a series of strikes on senior figures in the group that Iran's Supreme Leader dismissed as counterproductive. The air attack on Beirut, part of a wide assault that has driven more than 1.2 million Lebanese from their homes, was reported to have targeted the potential successor to the leader of Hezbollah assassinated by Israel a week ago. Hashem Safieddine's fate was unclear and neither Israel nor Hezbollah have offered any comment.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned Hezbollah leader Syyed Hassan Nasrallah to flee Lebanon days before he was killed in an Israeli strike and is now deeply worried about Israeli infiltration of senior government ranks in Tehran, three Iranian sources said. In the immediate aftermath of the attack on Hezbollah's booby-trapped pagers on Sept. 17, Khamenei sent a message with an envoy to beseech the Hezbollah secretary general to leave for Iran, citing intelligence reports that suggested Israel had operatives within Hezbollah and was planning to kill him, one of the sources, a senior Iranian official, told Reuters. The messenger, the official said, was a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander, Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was with Nasrallah in his bunker when it was hit by Israeli bombs and was also killed.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Muslims on Saturday «to stand by the people of Lebanon and the proud Hezbollah with whatever means they have and assist them in confronting the… wicked regime (of Israel)». Khamenei, in a statement after the Israeli army said it had killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, said: «The fate of this region will be determined by the forces of resistance, with Hezbollah at the forefront», state media reported. After Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah's death, Iranian media reported that General Abbas Nilforoushan, a deputy commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, had died «next to Nasrallah» in the Israeli strikes on south Beirut on Friday.

Reuven Azar, on Wednesday strongly condemned Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments on the treatment of minorities in India, calling the remarks «ridiculous» and hypocritical. Azar pointed out that while Khamenei lectures other nations, Iran itself is accused of suppressing freedoms and violating human rights. «It is really ridiculous that this radical leader is trying to lecture others while he is killing his own population oppressing freedoms like freedom of religion, freedom of speech, human rights that is completely outrageous and we hope Iranian people are going to be free one day from such oppression and tyranny coming from Khamenei,» Azar told PTI. The Iranian leader, addressing a gathering of clerics in Tehran on Monday, talked about what he described as «suffering» of Muslims in Gaza, Myanmar and India.

Israel's ambassador to India, Reuven Azar, has responded to comments made by Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, about the situation of Muslims in India. Azar criticized Khamenei, saying, «You are a killer and oppressor of your own people. Muslims in Israel, India and all democracies enjoy freedom, which is denied in Iran. I wish the people of Iran will be free soon.» Khamenei had earlier compared the plight of Muslims in India with those in Gaza, which drew a sharp reaction from India. Khamenei stated, «The enemies of Islam have always tried to make us indifferent with regard to our shared identity as an Islamic Ummah. We cannot consider ourselves to be Muslims if we are oblivious to the suffering that a Muslim is enduring in #Myanmar, #Gaza, #India, or any other place.» India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) issued a strong response to Khamenei's comments on Monday. The MEA's statement read, «We strongly deplore the comments made regarding minorities in India by the Supreme Leader of Iran. These are misinformed and unacceptable. Countries commenting on minorities are advised to look at their own record before making any observations about others.»

Iran held funeral processions on Thursday with calls for revenge after the killing in Tehran of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in a strike blamed on Israel.