Ebrahim Raisi was born on 14 December 1960, Mashhad. Raeisi claims a lineage tracing back to the prophet Muhammad, which enables him to wear a black turban. Hard-line judiciary chief Seyyed Ebrahim Raeisi won Iran’s 2021 presidential election by a landslide. Ebrahim Raisi Biography and Profile.Continue reading
Yair Lapid, a self-proclaimed autodidact, amateur boxer and martial artist who has also published a dozen books, was born 5 November 1963. He is the Tel Aviv-born son of the fiercely secular former justice minister Yosef “Tommy” Lapid, who also left journalism to enter politics. Yair Lapid mother, Shulamit Lapid, is a well-known novelist, playwright and poet.Continue reading
The US Embassy in the capital of Muscat said: “We have lost one of the world’s great leaders — a visionary responsible for Oman’s prosperity and progress for the last half century,” the embassy’s tweet read. “His steadfast leadership embodied his sincerity, his generosity, his tolerance, and his deep love for his country. His Majesty Sultan Qaboos will be missed not only by the people of Oman, but also by his friends and admirers the world over, including in the United States.”Continue reading
Esmail Ghaani was born August 8, 1957 in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. He grew up during the last decade of monarchy. He joined the Guard a year after the 1979 revolution. Like Qassem Soleimani, he first deployed to put down the Kurdish uprising in Iran that followed the shah’s downfall. Who is Esmail Ghaani? Esmail Ghaani Biography and Profile.Continue reading
Qasem Soleimani, born 11 March 1957. He bears resemblance to Sean Connery. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, once called him a “living martyr of the revolution.” For Iranians whose icons since the Islamic Revolution have been stern-faced clergy, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani widely represented a figure of national resilience in the face of four decades of U.S. pressure. Who is Qasem Soleimani? Here’s Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani Biography and Profile.Continue reading
Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani’s prime influence comes from his status as Shi’ism’s leading marjah al-taqlid. Born in Mashad, Iran, the young Ali began studying the Koran as a youthful prodigy at the age of five. Sistani was said to be of the “quietist” school of Islamic tradition. The Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Husseini al-Sistani is undoubtedly now the most powerful man in Iraq. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani Biography and Profile.Continue reading
Hassan Nasrallah (Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah) of Hezbollah (Hizbullah) was born August 31, 1960 al-Bazroieh – Tyre District, married to Fatima Mustafa Yassin, with whom he has five children, including: martyr Mohammed Hadi, Mohammed Jawad, Zeinab, Muhammad Ali, and Muhammad Mahdi. His Eminence, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s birth and residence was in “Karantina” neighborhood, one of the most impoverished and underprivileged neighborhoods in the eastern suburbs of Beirut, he was the oldest of three brothers and five sisters.
There he received his elementary education in the private “Kifah” School, and continued his secondary education at the “Educational Secondary” High School, in Sin El-Feel suburb.Continue reading
Marzieh Hashemi (Melanie Franklin), a natural-born citizen of the United States and a naturalized citizen of the Islamic Republic of Iran was born on 21 December 1959 in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. Marzieh Hashemi, an American-Iranian journalist and television presenter, is a prominent anchor for Iranian state-funded Press TV and serves as the editor-in-chief of Mahjubah magazine.
Marzieh Hashemi born into a Christian African-American family, later converted to Islam and moved to Iran after being inspired by the Iranian revolution. She lives in Tehran and comes back to the US about once a year to see her family, usually scheduling documentary work in the US, her son said.Continue reading
Born in the village of Qardaha in Syria on October 6, 1930, Hafez al-Assad became Syrian president of the country in 1971, after taking part in multiple coups. Though widely criticized for brutal tactics (most notably the 1982 Hama massacre), he is also praised for bringing stability to Syria, and for improving relations between Syria and Western powers by supporting America in the Persian Gulf War. He served as president of Syria until his death on June 10, 2000.
Of the five members of the Ba’ath Party’s Military Committee who seized power in Syria in 1963, Hafez Al-Assad went the furthest. Of the other four, one took the blame for Syria’s loss of the Golan Heights during the Six Day War and was pushed out of politics; one committed suicide; a third was assassinated; the other died in prison after 25 years.Continue reading
Bashar al-Assad inherited power in July 2000, a month after his father, military strongman Hafez al-Assad died. But since March 2011, his rule over Syria has been under threat, with the country beset by violence that has killed an estimated 465,000 people and embroiled regional and world powers in the never-ending horror.
Despite Western and Arab countries backing the opposition, Assad has survived seven years of war and refuses to step aside.Continue reading