DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, 75, left hospital on Monday a week after undergoing prostate surgery, state television reported. Official media said he was in good health.
Khamenei succeeded Supreme Leader and founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. He was Iran's president for two successive terms from 1981-1989 and survived an assassination attempt that paralyzed his right arm in 1981.
Khamenei has substantial influence, or constitutional authority, over the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government as well as the military and media.
He has repeatedly denounced the West, particularly the United States, over its actions against Iran's disputed nuclear program and its broader Middle Eastern policy.
But he has so far supported the talks between Iran and six world powers on the program, which Western countries suspect is aimed at seeking the capability to build a nuclear bomb but which Iran says is for peaceful purposes.
(Reporting by Mehrdad Balali, Editing by William Maclean and Janet Lawrence)