He has been named Iran’s interim supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iranian media reported on Sunday.
“The Expediency Discernment Council has elected Ayatollah Alireza Arafí as a member of the Interim Leadership Council,” Expediency Council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi said in a post on X.
Other members of the interim council are President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. The Council will carry out the duties of the Supreme Leader until the Assembly of Experts selects his successor “as soon as possible”.
Who is Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi?
Ayatollah Arafí was a member of both the Constitutional Oversight Supervisory Board and the Assembly of Experts that will select the next leader. He was selected by the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a member of the Guardian Council in 2019.
Ayatollah Arafí is also the head of the Basij paramilitary force and former chairman of Al-Mustafa International University in Qom.
Even before Saturday’s attack that killed Ali Khamenei, Arafi had long been considered one of the main contenders to succeed him, thanks to his deep institutional ties and administrative experience.
Arafi, 67, whose father Mohammad Ibrahim al-Arafi was a close friend of Ruhollah Khomeini, is considered a hardliner.
“Declaration of War on Muslims”
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday’s killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a “declaration of war against Muslims” and vowed revenge.
Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani then vowed to hit the US and Israel with a force never seen before.
Iran’s supreme leader, who has led the country for more than four decades, was killed along with his family members in US-Israeli strikes on Saturday.
Several top security officials and government officials have also been killed in the ongoing attacks.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards vowed revenge, saying they had launched attacks on 27 bases housing US troops in the Middle East, as well as Israeli military installations in Tel Aviv.
Illegitimate, says Pahlavi
Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late pro-Western shah deposed in the 1979 Islamic revolution, said any successor within the system would be illegitimate.
Pahlavi celebrated Khamenei’s demise, saying: “With his death, the Islamic Republic has effectively ended and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
Pahlavi, who has spent most of his life in exile near Washington, has presented himself as a transitional figure to secular democracy but does not enjoy support across the opposition.
