How Iran’s succession process unfolds as power transition begins after Khamenei

Iran begins succession process after Khamenei death

The death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after nearly 37 years in power has raised fundamental questions about Iran’s future direction.

The framework for a complex succession process began to emerge the day after Khamenei was killed in an airstrike campaign carried out by the United States and Israel.

Here is what happens next:

Temporary leadership council

Under its constitution, Iran established a council on Sunday to take over leadership responsibilities and govern the country in the interim.

The council comprises the sitting president, the head of the judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council selected by the Expediency Council — the body that advises the supreme leader and resolves disputes with parliament.

Iran’s reformist president, Masoud Pezeshkian, and the hard-line judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, are among its members. They will step in to “temporarily assume all the duties of leadership.”

Panel of clerics

Though the leadership council will govern in the interim, an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts “must, as soon as possible” pick a new supreme leader under Iranian law.

The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.

That body is known for disqualifying candidates in various elections in Iran and the Assembly of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council barred former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate whose administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from election for the Assembly of Experts in March 2024.

Khamenei's son

Clerical deliberations about succession and machinations over it take place far from the public eye, making it hard to gauge who may emerge as a leading contender.

In this context, Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to its interim leadership council, which will steer the country following the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

“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.

The interim body, which will also include the president and the head of the judiciary, will govern until the Assembly of Experts “elects a permanent leader as soon as possible”.

Previously, it was believed that Khamenei’s protege, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, might have been positioned to take the mantle. However, he was killed in a helicopter crash in May 2024.

That development has left one of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba — a 56-year-old Shiite cleric — as a potential candidate, though he has never held government office.

A father-to-son transfer in the case of a supreme leader could trigger backlash, not only among Iranians already critical of clerical rule but also among supporters of the system. Some may view such a move as un-Islamic and akin to establishing a new religious dynasty after the 1979 collapse of the U.S.-backed government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

Rare transition

There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of supreme leader of Iran, the paramount decision-maker since the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In 1989, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died at age 86 after being the figurehead of the revolution and leading Iran through its eight-year war with Iraq. This transition now comes after Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June 2025 as well.

Vast powers

The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state.

He also serves as the commander-in-chief of the country's military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force that the United States designated a terrorist organization in 2019, and which Khamenei empowered during his rule.

The Guard, which has led the self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a series of militant groups and allies across the Middle East meant to counter the U.S. and Israel, also has extensive wealth and holdings in Iran.