Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran
Official residence and workplace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Office of the Supreme Leadership Authority (Persian: دفتر مقام معظم رهبری, Daftar-e Magham-e Moazzam-e Rahbari), also known in shortform as the House of the Leadership (Persian: بیت رهبری, Beit-e Rahbari), was the official residence, bureaucratic office and principal workplace of the supreme leader of Iran[5] from 1989 until it was destroyed in an airstrike on 28 February 2026.[6][7][8][9]
| |
 | |
![](#/media/File:"Lovers_of_the_Ahl_al-Bayt_and_the_Takfiris_issue"_Summit_participants_meeting_with_Ali_Khamenei_-_23_November_2017_(cropped).jpg) Pictured here, the Imam Khomeini Hussainiya, part of the House of Leadership, was the place where the Supreme Leader usually met the public.[1] | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | July 1989 |
| Preceding agency | |
| Dissolved | 28 February 2026 |
| Status | Destroyed |
| Headquarters | Tehran, Iran 35°41′31″N 51°23′55″E |
| Agency executives |
|
| Website | www.leader.ir |
Its structure was a mixture of traditional Beit (religious office of Marja') and bureaucracy.[10] The institution was located in central Tehran[11] and was run by Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani.[3] In 2026, it was estimated that 4000 people were working at its headquarters and another 40,000 affiliated with the office throughout the Iranian government.[12]
Location
The Office of the Supreme Leader was built on the grounds of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's Ekhtesassi Palace, which served as Ali Khamenei's residence and office during his tenure as President of the Islamic Republic from 1981 to 1989.
Ekhtesassi Palace
The Ekhtesassi Palace was designed in 1938 by two Jewish Hungarian architects from the British Mandate of Palestine (present-day Israel), Laszlo Fischer and Ferenc Bodanzky, who also designed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building in the National Garden. Reza Shah personally selected the two to design the residence adjacent to his Marble Palace as a gift to the then-Crown Prince. Additional palaces were constructed in its vicinity for his siblings Shams (north, directly above), Ashraf (south, across the street) and Abdol Reza (east, across the street). It served as Mohammad Reza Shah's primary residence from 1938 until 1969, when the Imperial Court moved into the Niavaran Palace complex in northern Tehran.[13]
Overview
The Office of the Supreme Leader was used by the supreme leader to communicate and administer orders to various other military, cultural, economic, and political organizations. A number of political, military, and religious advisors worked under this office. These advisors have an influential role in decisions made throughout country.
According to Ali Motahari, a former member of parliament from Tehran, the influence of the Office of the Supreme Leader in the country's affairs was so great that "the parliament is effectively a branch of the Office of the Supreme Leader".[14]
History
Traditionally in Shia Islam, an ayatollah has an office (bayt), often run by his son, to communicate and advise his followers on religious issues and to organize matters such as the collecting and distributing of charity.[12] Under Ruhollah Khomeini his bayt had several dozen employees, operating largely traditionally. Under the much longer tenure of his successor, Ali Khamenei, the office grew to have thousands of employees, with offices devoted to making sure government ministries followed the leader's wishes, was known for being "secretive", and for consolidating power through security services -- a way some thought of substituting for what he (Khamenei) lacked in religious credentials. (Khamenei had not achieved the rank of ayatollah at the time of his installation as supreme leader, and the third supreme leader has not either.)[12]
Sanctions
On 24 June 2019, U.S. president Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13876, in which the assets of the Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran, along with Ali Khamenei, were frozen following the incident near the Gulf of Oman in the days prior.[15][16]
See also
- Jamaran Hussainiya – Ruhollah Khomeini's residency in Jamaran – similar compound of the previous supreme leader