Most Powerful

• #1 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
  Gulf regionIranIraqLebanonMashhadMiddle EastSyriaTehran PoliticalReligionReligious Hierarchy 21st Century Religious HierarchyState Power Power: 100
  Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (1939–2026) was an Iranian cleric and politician who served as president of Iran from 1981 to 1989 and as Supreme Leader from 1989 until his death in 2026. As the highest authority in the Islamic Republic, he controlled key levers of state power through appointment rights over the judiciary, military leadership, state broadcasting, and influential oversight bodies. His rule consolidated a theocratic security state in which religious legitimacy, revolutionary ideology, and coercive institutions reinforced one another.
• #2 Hassan Nasrallah
  IranLebanonSyria MilitaryParty State ControlPolitical 21st Century Military CommandState Power Power: 100
  Hassan Nasrallah (1960–2024) was a Lebanese Shia cleric and political leader who served as secretary-general of Hezbollah from 1992 until his death in 2024. Under his leadership, Hezbollah evolved from a militia rooted in the Lebanese civil war era into a hybrid organization combining an armed wing, a political party with parliamentary influence, and a broad social-services network. Nasrallah became the movement’s most recognizable public figure and a central node in the regional alliance linking Hezbollah with Iran and, at various points, with Syrian state interests.
• #3 Edmond Safra
  LebanonSwitzerland FinancialFinancial Network Control World Wars and Midcentury Finance and Wealth Power: 62
  Edmond Jacob Safra (1932–1999) was a Lebanese-born banker who built a fortune and an international reputation through private banking, trade finance, and the careful management of elite client relationships. He founded Republic National Bank of New York and expanded a network of related banks and financial firms that catered to wealthy individuals, multinational businesses, and cross-border commercial flows. Safra was widely known for emphasizing discretion, liquidity, and conservative risk management, positioning his institutions as safe harbors for clients who needed stability and confidentiality amid political and financial turbulence.Safra is classified under financial network control because private banking is a form of power that operates through access, information, and trust. A private bank’s influence rests on its ability to accept deposits, arrange credit, move funds across jurisdictions, and provide legal and operational structures for holding assets. These capabilities become especially consequential when clients include politically connected families, major trading firms, and individuals seeking refuge from unstable regimes or volatile markets. Safra’s career illustrates how a banker can gain durable influence without holding formal political authority, by becoming an indispensable intermediary for capital and by building institutions that outlast the founder.
• #4 Joseph Safra
  BrazilLebanon FinancialFinancial Network Control World Wars and Midcentury Finance and Wealth Power: 62
  Joseph Safra (born 1938) is a banker associated with Brazil and Lebanon. Joseph Safra is best known for building a private banking empire centered on deposit stability, client networks, and conservative balance sheets. This profile belongs to the site’s study of financial network control and finance and wealth, where influence depends on controlling systems rather than possessing money alone. Across this era, wealth and command were less about possession alone than about controlling the systems through which other people had to move.
• #5 Najib Mikati
  Lebanon FinancialFinancial Network ControlPolitical 21st Century Finance and WealthState Power Power: 62
  Najib Mikati (born 1955) is a Lebanese businessman and politician who built his fortune primarily through telecommunications and later became a recurrent figure in Lebanon’s crisis-driven government formation, serving multiple terms as prime minister. In business, he and his family co-founded enterprises that expanded rapidly during periods when Lebanon and neighboring states were rebuilding infrastructure and liberalizing telecom markets. In politics, he has often been selected as a compromise leader during moments of intense polarization, including periods shaped by the aftermath of political assassinations, regional conflict, and Lebanon’s prolonged economic collapse.