Who Is Ayatollah Arafi, Iran's New Interim Supreme Leader After Ali Khamenei's Killing?
Tehran, Iran: After the assassination of Iran supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Tehran, the country has named new interim supreme leader senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi.
The US-Israel military operation had targeted military bases, government sites and senior leadership locations, residential areas and school in Iran, killing over 200 people including nearly 100 girls students. Khamenei’s death ends his rule since 1989.
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Iran had activated Article 111 of its Constitution after Khamenei’s assassination, triggering an emergency leadership arrangement in which a three-member council assumes the Supreme Leader’s powers until a permanent successor is chosen.
Arafi has been appointed as the jurist member of this interim leadership council, a role drawn from the Guardian Council under the constitutional formula.
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Under the mechanism, he will jointly lead the country with President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i. The trio, together, now holds the supreme authority previously exercised solely by Khamenei as Iran moves through an unprecedented leadership crisis.
