Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, hard-line cleric who made Iran a regional power, dies at 86 - The Boston Globe

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

45% : The mere charge of being "against" his divine rule risked the death penalty.
42% : At the same time, he cannily exploited political instabilities in the Middle East to extend Iran's reach, constructing a so-called axis of resistance from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean that sought to threaten Israel and rival the Sunni Muslim powers of the Arab world.
39% : Abroad, he trained and armed allied militias in the Gaza Strip, Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen, expanding Iran's influence to menace Israel and challenge Saudi Arabia for regional dominance.
39% : His worldview was shaped by animosity toward the United States, which he called "the great Satan," and Israel, which he described as "a cancerous tumor that must be removed," though for the most part he avoided open military confrontation with either.
37% : " Israel engaged Hamas in a war that devastated Gaza, drew in Hezbollah in Lebanon, and prompted Israeli assassinations of senior figures from both groups, including one inside Iran.
36% : When Hamas led its surprise assault on Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 people and dragging 250 back to Gaza as hostages, he praised it as "a decisive blow to the Zionist regime.
36% : Ayatollah Khamenei voiced reluctant support for the deal reached in 2015, while emphasizing that it did not change Iran's hostility toward the United States and Israel.
35% : This campaign culminated in Israeli strikes across Iran in June 2025 that killed key military leaders and scientists and damaged nuclear sites, and the joint US-Israel assault eight months later.
34% : Twice in 2024, in April and October, Iran fired barrages of drones and missiles toward Israel, but most were shot down and did little damage.
31% : Ayatollah Khamenei's death came amid an extensive attack on Iran by the United States and Israel earlier in the day.
24% : After the Palestinian militant group Hamas led a devastating attack on Israel in October 2023, he offered full-throated support to anti-Israel militants in the resulting wars in Gaza and Lebanon.

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