Iran's Supreme Leader takes a hard line
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Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Iran's spiritual leader and highest authority. His voice overrides all others in the hierarchy.
He is widely regarded as the figurehead of the country's conservative establishment.
He has repeatedly denounced the idea of talks with the United States. During and after the US-led war on Iraq, he was sharply critical of Washington's policies.
When pro-reform students rioted in June 2003, Ayatollah Khamenei was quick to warn that such actions would not be tolerated. And he blamed the US for stirring up the trouble.
"Leaders do not have the right to have any pity whatsoever for the mercenaries of the enemy," he said in a broadcast speech.
He succeeded Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as Supreme Leader in 1989. Before that he was president for two successive terms from 1981-1989.
Khomeini was a cleric of the highest rank, a Source of Emulation. When Ayatollah Khamenei took over, the constitution had to be amended to allow the post to be held by a lower-ranking theologian.
Powers questioned
In 1997 he famously clashed with Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a respected scholar who ranks higher in the hierarchy.
Ayatollah Montazeri, who is also one of Iran's leading dissidents, questioned the powers of the Supreme Leader. This led to the closure of his religious school, an attack on his office in Qom and to a period of house arrest.
Then in November 1999 Ayatollah Khamenei went on TV to defend a controversial Special Clerical Court, which had just found the editor of a leading reformist daily guilty of publishing anti-Islamic articles.
Khordad editor and former interior minister Abdullah Nuri had described the court as "illegal". Khamenei hit back, saying there was a need for a court that "had the courage to put a cleric on trial and demand answers".
Ayatollah Khamenei has consistently backed the supervisory role of the conservative Guardian Council.
Any re-interpretation of the press law is not in the interests of the country and the system
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In August 2000, he sided with the Guardian Council in rejecting a Majlis (parliament) bill reforming the country's press law.
A letter he wrote to parliament, quoted by the state news agency, said the current law had prevented the "enemies of Islam" from taking over the press.
"Thus any re-interpretation of the law is not in the interests of the country," the letter argued.
The letter led to scuffles in the Majlis and to a debate on the powers of the Majlis and the Guardian Council. The press bill was withdrawn.
Ayatollah Khamenei did however intervene in the case of pro-reform academic Hashem Aghajari. In November 2002, Mr Aghajari said Muslims should re-interpret Islam rather than blindly follow leaders.
The judiciary sentenced him to death. When protests erupted in the capital, Khamenei ordered a review of the sentence. This is still pending.
In May 2003, over 100 members of parliament wrote an open letter to the ayatollah, warning that unless he removes obstacles to reforms the survival of the Islamic system will be at risk.
The MPs said Iran was facing a stark choice between democracy and dictatorship. The letter was posted on two Iranian websites, but was removed by the authorities after 24 hours.
BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.
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