TEHRAN – Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei long regarded security as the most valuable asset a nation could possess. When he became Iran’s Leader in 1989, the country was emerging from one of the most devastating periods in its modern history.
Less than two years earlier, Iranian forces had succeeded in pushing Iraqi troops out of their territory, ending a war that had lasted eight years and claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. Iran had preserved its sovereignty, but the cost had been staggering. Facing an Iraqi army supported by major global powers and armed with far superior military equipment, Iranians had relied on endurance and sacrifice to prevent the collapse of their nation.
The lessons of that war left a deep imprint on the thinking of the new Leader. For Ayatollah Khamenei, the priority in the years that followed was to ensure that Iran would never again face such a threat without the means to respond. Building a security architecture capable of protecting not only Iran’s borders but also its broader strategic environment became central to the country’s policies.
Over the decades that follo
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