The current supreme leader Ali Khamenei, ruling Iran for more than three decades, has issued decrees and made final decisions on economy, education, environment, foreign policy, national planning, and almost everything else in the country.

Former Prime Minister Bakhtiar, for example, recently claimed that there are over 20,000 Palestinian advisers in Iran. Other opponents of the Khomeini government have charged that Palestinians pilot Iranian aircraft or are present among the militants holding the US Embassy.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (né Sabbaghian; 28 October 1956) is an Iranian politician who served as the sixth president of Iran from 2005 to 2013. Ideologically a principlist and nationalist, he is currently a member of the Expediency Discernment Council and a strong supporter of Iran's nuclear programme.