Topline
Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the country would appoint a new supreme leader in “a day or two,” he told Al Jazeera in an interview, as Iranian regime leaders regroup around a council until a new head of state is chosen after U.S. and Israeli air strikes killed the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A three-person Leadership Council stepped in after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed.
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Key Facts
In the immediate aftermath of Khamenei’s death, top surviving regime officials appointed a three-person Leadership Council consisting of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and Alireza Arafi, a cleric and member of the Guardian Council—the powerful 12-person body that vets political candidates and can veto legislation passed by parliament.
The Leadership Council will step into the role of supreme leader until the next one is chosen.
Iran’s Assembly of Experts, an elected group of 88 clerics whose candidacies were approved by the Guardian Council, will then be tasked with choosing the next supreme leader.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.