Iran Rushes to Appoint New Supreme Leader
Following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Assembly of Experts is expected to appoint a new supreme leader within the next one to two days. The rapid succession process is an attempt to project stability as the country's retaliatory strikes widen. Details have also emerged that the U.S. strike was enabled by a months-long CIA operation that tracked Khamenei's movements.
This marks only the second leadership transition since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The previous succession occurred in 1989 when the Assembly of Experts selected Ali Khamenei to follow the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The 88-member Assembly of Experts, a body of senior Islamic jurists, is constitutionally required to appoint a new leader as soon as possible. To manage the country in the interim, a temporary leadership council has been formed. This council consists of Iran's president, Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a cleric from the Guardian Council. The CIA had been tracking Ayatollah Khamenei’s movements for months, according to sources familiar with the operation. Intelligence identifying a Saturday morning meeting of Iran's top leaders, including Khamenei, at a leadership compound in Tehran prompted the timing of the joint U.S.-Israeli strike. Iran's retaliatory strikes have targeted U.S. troops and allied nations across the region. Missile and drone attacks have been directed at Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan. In one of the deadliest responses, an Iranian missile strike killed at least six people in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. While deliberations are secret, potential successors include Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, and Alireza Arafi, who is on the interim leadership council. The idea of a father-to-son succession is controversial, as it evokes the hereditary monarchy overthrown in the 1979 revolution. Former president Ebrahim Raisi was considered a top contender before his death in a May 2024 helicopter crash.
