TEHRAN (dpa-AFX) – Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was killed in an air strike in Tehran. According to the state news agency Ilna, the 69-year-old was with bodyguards in his house in the east of the capital at the time of the attack.
Ahmadinejad led Iran from 2005 to 2013. At the beginning he was seen as the favorite of the ruling Shiite clergy as well as hardliners and conservatives in parliament. Towards the end of his term in office, criticism of his course grew. His hard line on nuclear policy triggered international sanctions that led the country into a severe economic crisis.
Iran was internationally isolated because of its military threats against Israel and its denial of the Holocaust. His supporters increasingly turned away from him, and by the end of his term in office he was controversial even among hardliners.
Ahmadinejad relied heavily on the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) during his presidency. In return, he gave them profits from privatizations and control over strategic economic sectors.
Although Ahmadinejad was considered the foster son of the now-killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he emerged as an unpredictable opposition within the system toward the end of his presidency and beyond.
His attempt to expand the president-elect’s powers over the clergy – particularly through the open conflict over the Intelligence Ministry in 2011 – led to a break with the Supreme Leader. In the following years he was politically marginalized; the Guardian Council excluded him from the presidential elections in 2017, 2021 and 2024./da/DP/zb
