Who’re the council members briefly answerable for Iran? | Explainer Information

EXPLAINER

Till Khamenei’s successor is picked, the three-member management council, together with Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, will lead Iran.

Iranian authorities have introduced a three-member interim management council to run the federal government after the killing of Supreme Chief Ali Khamenei in Israeli-United States strikes.

Iran’s authorities pledged to avenge the killing on Saturday of Khamenei, who had been in energy for practically 4 many years. Tehran has since focused Israeli and US belongings positioned throughout Gulf international locations in retaliatory strikes.

Whereas US President Donald Trump has stated he needs a change in Iran’s authorities, the non secular leaders of Iran moved on Sunday to begin the method of selecting Khamenei’s successor.

What’s the interim management council?

Article 111 of Iran’s Structure authorises a brief management council to imagine the supreme chief’s duties till a successor is elected.

That council will include President Masoud Pezeshkian; the chief justice of the Supreme Court docket, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei; and a member of the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Alireza Arafi.

So who’re these three figures who will briefly run Iran because it reels from warfare?

Ayatollah Alireza Arafi

Arafi has been a member of the Guardian Council since 2019. Its members are appointed by the supreme chief. It’s an Islamic authorized authority that vets Iran’s legal guidelines and insurance policies to verify they conform to Islamic rules. It approves election candidates, has veto energy over laws handed by parliament and supervises elections.

Arafi additionally serves because the deputy chairman of the Meeting of Specialists, the physique chargeable for overseeing the number of the supreme chief. He leads Friday prayers in Qom, Iran’s most necessary non secular centre, and heads the seminary system, overseeing training for non secular leaders nationwide.

Masoud Pezeshkian

Pezeshkian, 71, is a reformist politician and coronary heart surgeon who served within the military in the course of the Iran-Iraq Struggle. He was elected president within the 2024 elections.

He beforehand served as well being minister underneath President Mohammad Khatami and, after 2005, as a member of parliament representing the northwestern metropolis of Tabriz.

Pezeshkian ran unsuccessfully for president earlier however in 2024 gained on a reform-oriented platform and has since navigated financial pressures and regional tensions.

He earlier campaigned on financial stabilisation, easing social restrictions and pursuing constructive engagement overseas whereas affirming loyalty to the Islamic Republic’s constitutional framework.

Reacting to Khamenei’s assassination, Pezeshkian stated in an announcement that Iran now considers “it its authentic responsibility and proper to avenge the perpetrators and masterminds of this historic crime”.

Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei

Mohseni-Ejei is a senior non secular chief and has headed the judiciary since Khamenei appointed him to the put up in July 2021.

He beforehand served as intelligence minister from 2005 to 2009 and later as prosecutor-general and first deputy chief justice. He’s considered a hardline determine aligned with the conservative wing of the federal government.

In January, when the collapsing rial triggered protests throughout Iran, Mohseni-Ejei promised “no leniency” in the direction of what he referred to as “rioters”.

Mohseni-Ejei stated the US and Israel “overtly and explicitly supported the unrest” within the nation after Trump referred to as on Iranians to take to the streets.

After Khamenei’s killing, Trump once more addressed the Iranian public on Saturday, calling for them to topple the federal government. “This may most likely be your solely likelihood for generations,” he stated on Saturday after the US and Israeli assaults on Iran started.