Iran's leaders are scrambling to replace Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who ruled the country for 37 years before he was killed in the surprise US and Israeli bombardment.
It's only the second time since the 1979 revolution that a new supreme leader is being chosen. Potential candidates range from hard-liners committed to confrontation with the West to reformists who seek diplomatic engagement.
The supreme leader has the final say on all major decisions, including war, peace and the country's disputed nuclear program.
In the meantime, a provisional governing council composed of President Masoud Pezeshkian, hard-line judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and senior cleric Ali Reza Arafi is guiding the country through its biggest crisis in decades. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that a new supreme leader would be chosen early this week.
The supreme leader is appointed by an 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts, who by law are supposed to quickly name a successor. The panel consists of clerics who are popularly elected after their candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran’s constitutional watchdog.
Khamenei had major influence over both clerical bodies, making it unlikely the next leader will mark a radical departure.
Here are the top contenders.
Mojtaba Khamenei
The son of Khamenei, a mid-level cleric, is widely considered a potential successor. He has strong ties to Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard but has never held office. His selection could prove awkward, as the regime has long criticized hereditary rule and cast itself as a more just alternative.
Ali Reza Arafi
Arafi is a member of the provisional government council. The senior cleric was handpicked by Khamenei to be a member of the Guardian Council in 2019, and three years later he was elected to the Assembly of Experts. He leads a network of seminaries.
Hassan Rouhani
Rouhani, a relative moderate, was president of Iran from 2013 to 2021 and reached the nuclear agreement with the Obama administration that US President Donald Trump scrapped during his first term. Rouhani served on the Assembly of Experts until 2024, when he said he was disqualified from running for reelection. Rouhani criticized it as an infringement on Iranians' political participation.
Hassan Khomeini
Khomeini is the most prominent grandson of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Khomeini. He is also seen as a relative moderate, but has never held government office. He currently works at his grandfather’s mausoleum in Tehran.
Mohammed Mehdi Mirbagheri
Mirbagheri is a senior cleric popular with hard-liners who serves on the Assembly of Experts. He was close to the late Mohammad Taghi Mesbah Yazdi, a fellow hard-liner who wrote that Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce “special weapons,” a veiled reference to nuclear arms.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Mirbagheri denounced the closure of schools as a “conspiracy.”
He is currently the head of the Islamic Cultural Center in Qom, the main center for Islamic teaching in Iran.
