Iran has appointed Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as the jurist member of Iran’s interim Leadership Council Supreme following the confirmed assassination of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US-Israel joint airstrikes.
“The Expediency Discernment Council has elected Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as a member of the interim leadership council,” said expediency council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi in a post on X.
Other members of the interim council are President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The Council will handle the supreme leader’s duties until the Assembly of Experts selects a successor “as soon as possible”.
Iran has officially triggered Article 111 of its Constitution according to a report by Reuters. This law mandates that if the country suddenly lacks a Supreme Leader, a temporary three-person council must be formed to assume all absolute leadership duties until a permanent successor is chosen.
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has been appointed to fill that critical third seat as the designated Guardian Council jurist, effectively making him one of the three most powerful men in Iran today.
Also Read: Iran Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed in US-Israel joint strike
As per a report, before this emergency appointment, he simultaneously held three of the most influential positions in the country: he is the Director of Iran’s nationwide Islamic Seminary system, a vetting member of the powerful Guardian Council, and a sitting member of the Assembly of Experts.
Born in 1959, the 67-year-old Ayatollah Alireza Arafi is a senior figure in Iran’s clerical hierarchy. He was handpicked by late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a member of the Guardian Council in 2019.
Arafi’s appointment comes amid competing names discussed in public and state media as potential successors to Khamenei, including figures from both hard-line and more pragmatic clerical factions.
