Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and representative of the regime's hard-line faction, has died

The successor to Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989, Ali Khamenei embodied the Islamic Republic, setting its political course both domestically and abroad. Over the course of his rule, and faced with the country's isolation, he chose to harden the regime and brutally repress any dissent. He died on Saturday, February 28, at the age of 86.