Ali Khamenei

is a marja and the second and current Supreme Leader of Iran.[7][8] Khamenei succeeded the first Supreme Leader, Ruhollah Khomeini, after Khomeini's death, being elected as the new Supreme Leader by the Assembly of Experts on 4 June 1989 at the age of 49. His political career began after the Iranian Revolution, when the former President of Iran, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then a confidant of Khomeini, brought Khamenei into Khomeini's inner circle