Guwahati: Senior cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi has been appointed as Iran’s interim Supreme Leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on Tehran, the state-linked ISNA news agency reported.
Iran invoked Article 111 of its Constitution after Khamenei’s death, triggering an emergency leadership mechanism under which a three-member council assumes the Supreme Leader’s powers until a permanent successor is selected.
Under this provision, Ayatollah Arafi has been designated as the jurist member of the interim leadership council, a position drawn from the Guardian Council as mandated by the constitutional framework. His appointment completes the three-member body that will exercise the Supreme Leader’s authority during the transition period.
The interim council comprises President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i and Ayatollah Arafi. Together, they now hold the powers previously vested solely in Khamenei, marking an unprecedented phase in the Islamic Republic’s political history.
As the only cleric within the trio in a system traditionally headed by a religious Supreme Leader, Arafi is expected to play a central role during the interim arrangement.
Born in 1959, the 67-year-old Arafi is a senior figure in Iran’s clerical establishment. He currently heads the country’s national network of Islamic seminaries, serves as a clerical member of the Guardian Council and is a member of the Assembly of Experts — the body constitutionally empowered to appoint and oversee the Supreme Leader.
Meanwhile, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) also announced a leadership change after its commander-in-chief, General Mohammad Pakpour, was killed in the strikes. State media reported that Ahmad Vahidi has been appointed as the new IRGC chief.
The IRGC remains one of Iran’s most influential institutions, wielding significant military, political and economic power, and operates independently of the country’s regular armed forces.
Khamenei, 86, who had led Iran since 1989, was killed in a large-scale US-Israeli military operation targeting military installations, government sites and senior leadership facilities in Tehran. The strikes reportedly included locations linked to Defence Minister Amir Naserzadeh and senior IRGC leadership.
US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly announced Khamenei’s death shortly after the operation. Iran initially denied the reports but confirmed his death on Sunday morning.
The country now faces a critical transition as it navigates the dual challenges of external military pressure and an unprecedented leadership vacuum at the apex of the Islamic Republic’s political system.