Kateryna Hirnyk13:19, 01.03.26

The interim council will govern the country until a permanent leader is elected.

Iran has appointed Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as the country’s acting supreme leader after the elimination of Ali Khamenei , the Times of Israel reports .

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi was appointed as a member of the interim council responsible for carrying out the duties of the Supreme Leader during the transitional period.

“The Expediency Council has elected Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as a member of the interim governing council,” the council’s spokesman, Mohsen Dehnavi, said in a statement on X.

The interim council, which will also include the president and the head of the judiciary, will govern the country until the Assembly of Experts “elects a permanent leader as soon as possible.”

Earlier, the media reported that during the transition period, Iran will be led by President Masoud Pezeshkian, the head of the judiciary, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, and one of the members of the Guardian Council of the Constitution.

Alireza Arafi – what is known about him

Alireza Arafi is an Iranian Shiite cleric.

Before the Islamic Revolution, he was a preacher and writer. From 2009 to 2018, Arafi headed the Almosaf Institute, a religious educational center dedicated to “spreading the ideology of the Islamic Republic.” Arafi claims that in 8 years at the Almosaf Institute, they managed to convert 50 million people to Shiism.

Arafi strongly opposes atheism and Christianity (especially house churches in Iran), which he considers to be forms of idolatry.

Eliminating Ali Khamenei

Iranian state media confirmed the death of the country’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on Sunday morning. He ruled Iran for 37 years.

Israeli fighter jets reportedly dropped 30 bombs on Khamenei’s residence , destroying it to the ground.

In response to Khamenei’s death, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps promised “the most brutal offensive operation in history” against American and Israeli bases.

(C)UNIAN 2026