Shiite Muslim girl beast her chest whereas mourning the dying of late Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, in Karachi, Pakistan, on March 2, 2026.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Iran’s leaders are scrambling to interchange Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who dominated the nation for 37 years earlier than he was killed within the U.S. and Israeli bombardment.
It is solely the second time for the reason that 1979 Islamic Revolution {that a} new supreme chief is being chosen. Potential candidates vary from hard-liners dedicated to confrontation with the West to reformists who search diplomatic engagement.
The supreme chief has the ultimate say on all main choices, together with battle, peace and the nation’s disputed nuclear program.
Within the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior Shiite cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the nation by means of its greatest disaster in many years. Overseas Minister Abbas Araghchi mentioned on Sunday (March 1, 2026) {that a} new supreme chief can be chosen early this week.
The supreme chief is appointed by an 88-member panel known as the Meeting of Consultants, who by legislation are imagined to shortly title a successor. The panel consists of Shiite clerics who’re popularly elected after their candidacies are authorised by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.
Khamenei had main affect over each clerical our bodies, making it unlikely the following chief will mark a radical departure.
Listed here are the highest contenders:
Mojtaba Khamenei
The son of Khamenei, a mid-level Shiite cleric, is broadly thought of a possible successor. He has sturdy ties to Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard however has by no means held workplace. His choice may show awkward, because the Islamic Republic has lengthy criticised hereditary rule and solid itself as a extra simply different.
Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi
Mr. Arafi is a member of the provisional authorities council. The senior Shiite cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Meeting of Consultants. He leads a community of seminaries.
Hassan Rouhani
Mr. Rouhani, a relative average, was President of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the landmark nuclear settlement with the Obama administration that U.S. President Donald Trump scrapped throughout his first time period. Mr. Rouhani served on the Meeting of Consultants till 2024, when he mentioned he was disqualified from operating for reelection. Mr. Rouhani criticised it as an infringement on Iranians’ political participation.
Hassan Khomeini
Mr. Khomeini is essentially the most distinguished grandson of the founding father of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. He’s additionally seen as a relative average, however has by no means held authorities workplace. He presently works at his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.
Ayatollah Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri
Mr. Mirbagheri is a senior cleric common with hard-liners who serves on the Meeting of Consultants.
He was near the late Ayatollah Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran shouldn’t deprive itself of the correct to supply “particular weapons,” a veiled reference to nuclear arms.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr. Mirbagheri denounced the closure of faculties as a “conspiracy.”
He’s presently the pinnacle of the Islamic Cultural Heart in Qom, the principle middle for Islamic educating in Iran.
Revealed – March 03, 2026 02:42 am IST