3 months ago
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The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei raises paramount questions astir the country’s future. And portion a clerical sheet is tasked with replacing him, succession is simply a analyzable substance successful Iran’s theocracy:
Here is what to know:
A clerical assembly selects a caller ultimate leader
An 88-member sheet called the Assembly of Experts appoints the ultimate leader. The sheet tin region 1 arsenic well, though that has ne'er happened.
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The sheet consists wholly of Shia clerics who are popularly elected each 8 years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s law watchdog. That assemblage is known for disqualifying candidates successful assorted elections successful Iran and the Assembly of Experts is nary different. The Guardian Council barred erstwhile Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a comparative mean whose medication struck the 2015 atomic woody with satellite powers, from predetermination for the Assembly of Experts successful March 2024.
A impermanent enactment assembly whitethorn presume duties successful lawsuit of delay
Iranian instrumentality says the Assembly of Experts “must, arsenic soon arsenic possible” prime a caller ultimate leader. But until then, a enactment assembly tin measurement successful and “temporarily presume each the duties of leadership.” The assembly is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the caput of the country’s judiciary and a subordinate of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the ultimate person and settles disputes with parliament. If that were to hap now, Iran’s reformist President Masoud Pezeshkian and hard-line judiciary main Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei would beryllium connected that enactment council.
Khamenei’s lad could beryllium a imaginable contender
Clerical deliberations astir succession and machinations implicit it instrumentality spot acold from the nationalist eye, making it hard to gauge who whitethorn beryllium a apical contender.
Previously, it was thought Khamenei’s protégé, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, whitethorn effort to instrumentality the mantle. However, helium was killed successful a May 2024 chopper crash. That has near 1 of Khamenei’s sons, Mojtaba, a 56-year-old Shia cleric, arsenic a imaginable candidate, though helium has ne'er held authorities office. But a father-to-son transportation successful the lawsuit of a ultimate person could spark anger, not lone among Iranians already captious of clerical rule, but besides among supporters of the system. Some whitethorn spot it arsenic un-Islamic and successful enactment with creating a new, spiritual dynasty aft the 1979 illness of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s government.
A modulation similar this has happened lone erstwhile before
There has been lone 1 different transportation of powerfulness successful the bureau of ultimate person of Iran, the paramount decision-maker since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In 1989, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died astatine property 86 aft being the figurehead of the gyration and starring Iran done its bloody eight-year warfare with Iraq. This modulation present comes aft Israel launched a 12-day warfare against Iran successful June 2025 arsenic well.
The immense powers of a ultimate leader
The ultimate person is astatine the bosom of Iran’s analyzable power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has last accidental implicit each matters of state.
He besides serves arsenic the commander-in-chief of the country’s subject and the almighty Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary unit that the United States designated a violent enactment successful 2019 and which Khamenei empowered during his rule. The Guard, which has led the self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a bid of militant groups and allies crossed the Middle East meant to antagonistic the US and Israel, besides has extended wealthiness and holdings successful Iran.
