{"id":305809,"date":"2025-12-31T15:00:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\/"},"modified":"2025-12-31T15:00:25","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:00:25","slug":"revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\/","title":{"rendered":"Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/dqKmAsHMRoU\/hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei?\"><br \/> <iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/dqKmAsHMRoU\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe> <\/p>\n<p>Over 2025, every Friday, the Sky News Daily has been profiling a figure in the news \u2013 those who are making headlines, creating conversations. During the festive period, we\u2019re revisiting some of those standout profiles \u2013 the ones that really got us talking.<\/p>\n<p>In June, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s often reclusive supreme leader, surfaced to hit back at Donald Trump\u2019s demands for an unconditional surrender.<\/p>\n<p>Khamanei first came to power as President of Iran in 1981, and he was a surprise choice for supreme leader eight years later. But since then, with the help of the Revolutionary Guard he has had almost complete control of Iran and its anti-Israel and anti-American foreign policy agenda.<\/p>\n<p>Sky&#8217;s Tom Cheshire speaks to Alex Vatanka, founding director of the Iran programme at the Middle East Institute in Washington DC, about how Khamenei is viewed inside Iran and how his policies contributed to the current crisis.<\/p>\n<p>Producer: Soila Apparicio<\/p>\n<p>Editor: Wendy Parker<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over 2025, every Friday, the Sky News Daily has been profiling a figure in the news \u2013 those who are making headlines, creating conversations. During the festive period, we\u2019re revisiting some of those standout profiles \u2013 the ones that really got us talking. In June, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran\u2019s often reclusive supreme leader, surfaced to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":305810,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[128811],"tags":[142101,130514,129169],"actors":[],"class_list":["post-305809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sky-news","tag-142101","tag-every","tag-over"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? | News ISC Videos<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Watch Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? | News ISC Videos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Watch Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? for free, here on News ISC. Discover more great videos on our website and be part of the community.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.newsisc.com\/videos\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"News ISC Videos\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-12-31T15:00:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i1.ytimg.com\/vi\/dqKmAsHMRoU\/hqdefault.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8fc7285683ba1adeab6d673f53b9f3eb\"},\"headline\":\"Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei?\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-31T15:00:25+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":167,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/hqdefault-2649.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"2025\",\"Every\",\"over\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Sky News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/\",\"name\":\"Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? | News ISC Videos\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/revisited-from-accidental-to-absolute-leader-who-is-ayatollah-khamenei\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/12\\\/hqdefault-2649.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-12-31T15:00:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.newsisc.com\\\/videos\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8fc7285683ba1adeab6d673f53b9f3eb\"},\"description\":\"Watch Revisited: From accidental to absolute leader \u2013 who is Ayatollah Khamenei? for free, here on News ISC. 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