Iran’s supreme leader is being elevated to sainthood and leader of the worldwide Islamic movement by the Iranian media. In commentaries that reflect the dictates of the Iranian regime, the media for the first time are publishing statements by world officials and others that deify Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The most significant of such statements comes from Vladimir Putin, the former president and current prime minister of Russia. The media outlet Mahramaneh reports that in October 2007, when Putin traveled to Iran, he specifically requested a meeting with Khamenei and came away dazzled. During that meeting, according to the report, Khamenei talked about the history of Russia and what lies ahead, which surprised Putin. Afterward, Iranian diplomats said that Putin’s behavior had changed drastically. When Putin returned to Moscow, a reporter asked what he thought of the Iranian supreme leader. Putin is quoted as saying: “I don’t know much about the Messiah, the Christ, just what I have heard or read in the Bible, but I saw Christ, the Messiah, in the leader of Iran.” Kofi Annan, who served as the seventh secretary general of the United Nations, is also quoted as saying: “I have met … many world leaders whom I came to respect such as Jacques Chirac, the French president, Mikhail Gorbachev, the head of state of the U.S.S.R., and Helmut Kohl, chancellor of Germany, but none of these men touched me the way Ayatollah Khamenei did.

In my meeting with him, I forgot about everything else as I was overwhelmed by his spirituality.” Recently, the Iranian state-controlled TV for the first time publicly announced that Khamenei is really the mythical figure Seyed Khorasani, who, a centuries-old hadith (saying) states, will create the circumstances for the end of the world and the reappearance of the last Islamic messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, who will conquer the world under the banner of Islam. Several high-ranking clerics in Iran have publicly announced that Khamenei is the deputy of the Shiite’s 12th Imam on Earth and that refusal to obey his orders would be to refuse Allah. Some have also stated that Khamenei once a year travels to the sky and meets with the 12th Imam and confers on needed actions. During one such meeting, according to the clerics, he was told to continue on with the Iranian nuclear program despite widespread world objection. The media in Iran have credited the supreme leader with predicting the economic turmoil in Europe and the global awakening of Islam in the “Arab Spring.” They have also been adamant about an important prediction of the leader: the destruction of Israel, which they believe is imminent. Seyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary-general of the terrorist group Hezbollah, is quoted as saying, “Certain qualities of Iran’s supreme leader and aspects of his wisdom, prudence and spirituality are secret and sealed and unfortunately cannot be talked about in public.” He adds: “Though I cannot reveal much of what I know about Ayatollah Khamenei, I can tell with utmost certainty that the leader truly believes the destruction of Israel is … imminent.” Amil Imani is the author of a new book "Operation Persian Gulf." Get your copy now.