Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became Iran's supreme leader in 1989 as the country faced the huge task of recovering from the eight-year Iraq war with little assistance from an outside world that had generally backed Baghdad.

As the UN Security Council deadline expires today for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, its most sensitive nuclear activity, Ayatollah Khamenei, who is now 67, may again face a defining period where he must rally the nation.