Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and a legal expert from the Guardian Council will form a “temporary leadership council” to guide the Islamic Republic until the process of electing a new leader is completed, following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, in joint Israeli-American airstrikes.
This was explained by Ali Larijani, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, in an interview on state television. He indicated that the formation of this council will be “swift” in order to replace Khamenei, who had led the country for 37 years.
The selection of the country’s supreme leader is the responsibility of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, composed of 88 Shiite clerics, which is currently in its sixth eight-year term—following the 2024 elections that resulted in a conservative victory—since the start of the so-called Islamic Revolution of 1979.
A spokesman for the Guardian Council has made it clear that the legal selection process will continue in this manner, as stipulated in Article 8 of the Iranian Constitution.
“Now we are all in mourning and saddened, and the tragedy is very heavy and great, but the great people of Islamic Iran must know that there is no ambiguity in this regard in the legal system and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and detailed measures have been provided,” the spokesman stated in remarks reported by the Fars news agency.
Khamenei died this Saturday at his official residence, killed in Israeli and American airstrikes during an offensive whose stated objective was to force regime change in Iran. Therefore, a succession process is now underway, something that has only happened once before in the nearly 50 years of the Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities have stated that this “great crime” will not go “unpunished” and have declared 40 days of official mourning and seven public holidays, amid great uncertainty about the future of the country, which has lost several high-ranking officials in the offensive.
