Khomeini is the iron man who led the country's Islamic revolution against the hegemony of Shah Pahlavi. Khomeini returned to Tehran in 1979 to overthrow the US -backed Shah, after long 15 year's exile in France.
The man, Ahmadinejad, was conspicuous by not addressing the crowd in the commemoration function although he used earlier to speak at the event.
Hassan Khomeini,grandson of the great leader addressed the crowd.
"It was a rather awkward encounter for the president. He looked very uncomfortable as he sat there in Imam Khomeini’s shrine," said Al Jazeera Tehran reporter, Sorayya Lennie.
She said that reflected the growing tension between the presidency and the country's religious establishment.
In a television speech to mark the death anniversary, present supreme leader Ayathollah Ali Khamenei urged presidential candidates to not make liberal approaches to the West.
He asked them to focus on improving Iran's relations with other countries, not to country's enemies.
Earlier, America had announced new sanctions against Iran which directly targeted the Iran's Rial currency for the first time and also the car-making sector, an important source of jobs and revenue.
