Posted on 10/31/2013 1:41:57 PM PDT by Dave346
Consider it a very small victory for Iran.
Forbess latest The Worlds Most Powerful People list places Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, four spots higher than Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Khamenei, who comes in at #23 this year, a spot ahead of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, actually dropped two places from last year, when he ranked #21.
Reports that Khameneis health is failing dont seem to have affected his status on the global stage.
The supreme leader of the Islamic Republic, having final say on all domestic and foreign policy issues, has seen his country benefit from the election of the sweet talking Hassan Rouhani to the presidency this year.
Rouhanis so-called charm offensive has, thus far, paid dividends for Iran on the world stage, where Iran has made strides in its effort to engage the West over its nuclear program, to avoid military conflict, much to the chagrin of Netanyahu, who, has called for a tougher stance against the Islamic Republics nuclear ambitions.
Not that odd. Khamenei is after all a dictator and not subject to the electorate.
True, but Khamenei is currently racing to acquire nukes while Netanyahu is in a desperate bid to stop him.
Placement implies Forbes think Khamenei is winning that battle (which he may be today but won’t be for much longer).
Khamenei is:
(1) an absolute dictator over a regional power, which puts him ahead of any democratically elected leader as an objective measure, and
(2) Not a Jew, which puts him ahead of Netanyahu by the standards of all socialists (who have hated Jews since their national socialist brothers and soviet socialist comrades tried for a final solution to the Jewish problem).
Thanks Dave346.
Israeli Warplanes Strike Inside [Iranian client] Syria for Fifth Time This Year
ABC News | Oct. 31, 2013 | LUIS MARTINEZ and JOSH MARGOLIN
Posted on 10/31/2013 3:58:48 PM PDT by Pan_Yan
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3086105/posts
> presumably targeted advanced Russian missile weapons systems headed to the extremist group [and Iranian proxy] Hezbollah based in Lebanon.
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