Dare Babalola
Iran has appointed Ayatollah Arafi as its interim Supreme Leader following the death of Ali Khamenei in joint US–Israeli airstrikes on Saturday.
Arafi will be responsible for the duties of the Supreme Leader until the Assembly of Experts selects a successor.
The cleric will serve alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on an interim leadership council, which is mandated by law to oversee leadership responsibilities during the transition period.
Arafi, a 67-year-old senior cleric and a long-time insider in Iran’s religious and political hierarchy, served on the powerful Guardian Council. He was confirmed as part of the three-member body by the Expediency Council.
He has spent decades within Iran’s theological and bureaucratic institutions, studied in Qom, Iran’s principal seminary city, under prominent religious scholars and earned the rank of mujtahid, qualifying him to issue independent Islamic legal rulings.
