{"id":81440,"date":"2026-03-01T15:10:59","date_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:10:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/?p=81440"},"modified":"2026-03-01T15:10:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T12:10:59","slug":"ali-reza-arafi-to-lead-during-transition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/ali-reza-arafi-to-lead-during-transition\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran Appoints Interim Supreme Leader: Ali Reza Arafi to Lead During Transition"},"content":{"rendered":"

After nearly 37 years as Iran\u2019s highest political and religious authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s death has ushered in a critical transition phase for the country. State-linked ISNA news agency reported that senior cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi has been selected as the jurist member of the temporary leadership council that will carry out the Supreme Leader\u2019s duties until a permanent successor is chosen under Iran\u2019s constitutional framework.<\/p>\n

Khamenei ruled since 1989<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Ali Khamenei<\/a>, 86, had led Iran since 1989. He was killed in a large-scale US-Israeli military operation that targeted military bases, government sites and senior leadership locations.<\/p>\n

The strikes reportedly included facilities linked to Defence Minister Amir Naserzadeh and Revolutionary Guard Commander-in-Chief Mohammad Pakpour.<\/p>\n

How the interim leadership council works<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Under Iran\u2019s constitutional mechanism, the death of a Supreme Leader triggers the formation of a temporary leadership council.<\/p>\n

The council consists of:<\/strong><\/p>\n

President Masoud Pezeshkian<\/p>\n

Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje\u2019i<\/p>\n

A cleric member of the Guardian Council<\/p>\n

Ali Reza Arafi has been appointed as the clerical representative on this body. The council will collectively exercise the powers of the Supreme Leader during the transition period until the Assembly of Experts selects a permanent successor.<\/p>\n

Focus shifts to permanent succession<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Attention has now turned to how quickly Iran\u2019s constitutional process will move to appoint a new Supreme Leader.<\/p>\n

Until then, the temporary council is expected to manage state affairs as Iran navigates one of the most significant leadership transitions in its modern history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After nearly 37 years as Iran\u2019s highest political and religious authority, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei\u2019s death has ushered in a critical transition phase for the country. State-linked ISNA news agency reported that senior cleric Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi has been selected as the jurist member of the temporary leadership council that will carry out the Supreme …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9192199,"featured_media":81441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[80370,80508,80509,1134,77159,80510],"class_list":["post-81440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle-east","tag-ali-khamenei","tag-ali-reza-arafi","tag-interim-leader","tag-iran","tag-middle-east","tag-us-israel-strike"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9192199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81442,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81440\/revisions\/81442"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalturk.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}