File picture dated February 2, 2009 shows an Iranian woman holding a portrait of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R) during a ceremony at Tehran University. Khamenei, facing one of the biggest crises of his 20 years as Iran's supreme leader, remains an enigma to the wider world but exercises enormous influence at home. As spiritual heir to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei has vast powers and has played a crucial role in the development of Iranian society over the past two decades. Getty Images logo Getty Images 4 months ago

File picture dated February 2, 2009 shows an Iranian woman holding a portrait of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R) during a ceremony at Tehran University. Khamenei, facing one of the biggest crises of his 20 years as Iran's supreme leader, remains an enigma to the wider world but exercises enormous influence at home. As spiritual heir to revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Khamenei has vast powers and has played a crucial role in the development of Iranian society over the past two decades.

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  1. An Iranian protester wraps a Palestinian paper flag around her head as others hold up portraits of the late founder of the Islamic republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) and his successor, the current supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R), during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on September 18, 2009. Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave the keynote address to the annual mass rally of solidarity with the Palestinians at Tehran university on Quds Day, which was Khomeini's brainchild. Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a 'myth' and Israel was on its way to collapse, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.
  2. Iranian men hold up portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) and his predecessor, the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on September 18, 2009. Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a keynote address to the annual mass rally of solidarity with the Palestinians at Tehran university on Quds Day, which was Khomeini's brainchild. Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a 'myth' and Israel was on its way to collapse, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.
  3. Iranian women hold up a picture of Jerusalem's Dome of the Rock mosque, along with portraits of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and his predecessor, the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (R), during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on September 18, 2009. Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a keynote address to the annual mass rally of solidarity with the Palestinians at Tehran university on Quds Day, which was Khomeini's brainchild. Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a 'myth' and Israel was on its way to collapse, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.
  4. Iranian protesters, one of them wearing a wolf's head representing Israel, hold up placards bearing pictures of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) and his predecessor, the Islamic republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran on September 18, 2009. Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gave a keynote address to the annual mass rally of solidarity with the Palestinians at Tehran university on Quds Day, which was Khomeini's brainchild. Ahmadinejad said the Holocaust was a 'myth' and Israel was on its way to collapse, reiterating comments that sparked outrage around the world.
  5. Iranian members of the Basij militia hold portraits of Iran's late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L), and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali khamenei (R), during a rally outside the former US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 2009 to mark the storming of the American embassy by Iranian students 30 years ago. Thousands of Iranians staged the noisy anti-US rally in central Tehran as riot police armed with batons and firing teargas moved in as several hundred opposition supporters attempted to stage an anti-government protest.
  6. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. An Iranian student holds a placard bearing the images of Supereme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and founder of the Islamic Republic Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (L) during a rally outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran November 4, 2009.
  7. EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. An Iranian student holds a picture of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (L) and Iran's Late Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during a rally outside the former U.S. embassy in Tehran November 4, 2009.
  8. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks under a picture of late leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini at a military parade to mark the anniversary of the start of the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war in southern Tehran September 22, 2009.
  9. Lebanese protesters and Muslim clerics burn Israeli flags during a demonstration marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the southern Lebanese village of Kfar Kila, on the border with Israel, on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
  10. A burqa-clad Bahraini Shiite woman holds a picture of missing Lebanese Shiite leader Imam Mussa Sadr during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Manama on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
  11. Bahraini Shiites wave Palestinian and Hezbollah (yellow) flags during a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Manama on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians. Posters show (back L-R) Khomeini, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah and (front L) missing Lebanese Shiite leader Imam Mussa Sadr.
  12. Palestinian men hold fake rockets as they take part in a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day at the Yarmuk refugee camp near the Syrian capital Damascus on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
  13. People gather to demonstrate in support of the Palestinian people, on the so called 'Jerusalem Day' with many carrying posters of late Iranian spiritual leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Friday, Sept. 18, 2009, in Manama, Bahrain. The last Friday in the Islamic holy month of Ramadan was named Jerusalem Day by Khomeini, some years ago, declaring it a day for all Muslims to support Palestinians.
  14. Lebanese Hezbollah members take part in a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Beirut on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
  15. Women hold a Palestinian flag as they take part in a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in the Lebanese capital Beirut on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.
  16. Lebanese Hezbollah members take part in a rally marking Quds (Jerusalem) Day in Beirut on September 18, 2009. Quds Day, held each year on the last Friday of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, is the brainchild of Iran's late revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a display of solidarity with the Palestinians.

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  1. Turkey's President Abdullah Gul (R) welcomes his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad as he arrives for the COMCEC Economic Summit in Istanbul, November 9, 2009. COMCEC is the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC).
  2. A medic gets ready to give students of a university an injection of the H1N1 flu vaccine in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, November 9, 2009. Russia launched a vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu disease on Monday, local media reported.
  3. An Indian policeman stands guard as Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara (back) watches teammate Mahela Jayawardene bat in the nets during a training session in Mumbai on November 9, 2009. The Sri Lankan cricket team has arrived in India for a seven-week tour of the country to play three Tests, two Twenty20 matches and five One-Day Internationals.
  4. A medic gets ready to give students of a university an injection of the H1N1 flu vaccine in Russia's far eastern city of Vladivostok, November 9, 2009. Russia launched a vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu disease on Monday, local media reported.
  5. Sri Lanka's captain Kumar Sangakkara plays a shot during a cricket practice session in Mumbai November 9, 2009. Sri Lankan will play three tests, five one-day internationals and two Twenty20 matches against India starting from November 16.
  6. Crowds tear down a mock-up of the Berlin Wall at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles on November 9, 2009. On the night of November 9, 1989, following weeks of pro-democracy protests, the Stalinist state's authorities suddenly opened the East German border. After 28 years as prisoners of their own country, euphoric East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans welcoming them on the other side.
  7. Crowds tear down a mock-up of the Berlin Wall at an event commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles on November 9, 2009. On the night of November 9, 1989, following weeks of pro-democracy protests, the Stalinist state's authorities suddenly opened the East German border. After 28 years as prisoners of their own country, euphoric East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans welcoming them on the other side.
  8. Indian policemen stand guard as Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara (L) watches teammate Mahela Jayawardene (2R) bat in the nets during a training session in Mumbai on November 9, 2009. The Sri Lankan cricket team has arrived in India for a seven-week tour of the country to play three Tests, two Twenty20 matches and five One-Day Internationals.
  9. Indian policemen stand guard as Sri Lankan cricketer Kumar Sangakkara (CL) watches teammate Mahela Jayawardene (CR) bat in the nets during a training session in Mumbai on November 9, 2009. The Sri Lankan cricket team has arrived in India for a seven-week tour of the country to play three Tests, two Twenty20 matches and five One-Day Internationals.
  10. A Pakistani security official examines the wreckage of a rickshaw at the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.
  11. A foreign devotee from Sweden listens to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama during a preaching session in Tawang, in the northeastern Arunachal Pradesh state, India, Monday, Nov. 9, 2009 . Clearly uneasy about the Dalai Lama's weeklong visit to Arunachal Pradesh state, at the heart of a border dispute with neighboring China, Indian officials on Monday clamped down on journalists covering the Dalai Lama's visit.
  12. Pakistani police officers carry a casket of their comrade, who was killed in a suicide bombing, during a funeral prayer in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.
  13. Pakistani police officers salute a casket of their comrade, who was killed in a suicide bombing, during a funeral prayer in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.
  14. Crowds tear down a mock Berlin Wall at an event to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the wall on Wilshire Blvd in Los Angeles on November 9, 2009. On the night of November 9, 1989, following weeks of pro-democracy protests, the Stalinist state's authorities suddenly opened the East German border. After 28 years as prisoners of their own country, euphoric East Germans streamed to checkpoints and rushed past bewildered guards, many falling tearfully into the arms of West Germans welcoming them on the other side.
  15. Pakistani police officers and rescue workers gather at the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.
  16. Pakistani youngsters gather close to the site of a suicide bombing in Peshawar, Pakistan on Monday, Nov. 9, 2009. A suicide bomber in a rickshaw detonated his explosives near a group of policemen in northwest Pakistan's main city of Peshawar, killing three people Monday, police said.