article_snippet.sent: (CNN)Back in 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini famously said Ayatollah Khomeini was "drinking poison" when Ayatollah Khomeini accepted a ceasefire to end the eight-year-old war with Iraq.  
article_snippet.sent: the eight-year-old war with Iraq had helped define Ayatollah Khomeini's regime, the Islamic Republic, which Ayatollah Khomeini had founded a year before Saddam Hussein invaded Iran.
article_snippet.sent: Ayatollah Khomeini galvanized the nation, both Ayatollah Khomeini supporters and growing opponents, to fight against the enemy.
article_snippet.sent: Ayatollah Khomeini dragged out the eight-year-old war with Iraq for eight years, despite Iraq's Saddam Hussein's willingness to accept a ceasefire, and thus stabilized the foundations of the Islamic Republic.
article_snippet.sent: By the time Ayatollah Khomeini ended the eight-year-old war with Iraq, the economy was in shambles, and there was no sign of Ayatollah Khomeini die-hard volunteers.
article_snippet.sent: Like the eight-year-old war with Iraq, Iran's defiance to halt Iran's nuclear program has defined Khameni's era.
article_snippet.sent: Ayatollah Khomeini has defied the West in the face of increasing economic pressure.
article_snippet.sent: Iran claims that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful, but Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's refusal to end uranium enrichment activities -- a process that can lead to making nuclear fuel as well as nuclear bombs -- has landed the Islamic Republic under crippling sanctions.
article_snippet.sent: The standoff with the West has stretched longer than the eight-year-old war with Iraq.
article_snippet.sent: Khamenei predecessor ended the war a year before Khamenei death.
article_snippet.sent: Khamenei can claim that Iran is the winner in the country's decade-long confrontation with the West -- a legacy that Khamenei wants to leave behind.
highlights_snippet.sent: Iran's first Supreme Leader made a bitter peace with Iraq's Saddam Hussein .
  