Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to its interim leadership council following the killing of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
According to Khaleej Times, the country on Sunday, March 1, has appointed Arafi has temporary head of the council which will be at the helm of the Iran.
Expediency council spokesman Mohsen Dehnavi wrote on X, “The Expediency Discernment Council has elected Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as a member of the interim leadership council.”
The interim council, which will also include the president and the head of the judiciary, will lead the country until the Assembly of Experts "elects a permanent leader as soon as possible."
Who is Ayatollah Alireza Arafi?
Arafi is a senior cleric and a long-time insider in Iran's religious and political hierarchy, who now faces the challenge of steering the Islamic Republic during a period of heightened regional tensions and internal uncertainty.
Born in 1959 in Meybod, Yazd province, he comes from a clerical family and has spent decades within Iran's theological and bureaucratic institutions.
His career accelerated under the late Supreme Leader Khamenei, who appointed him to key roles over the years. These included Friday prayer leadership in Meybod and later in Qom itself, positions that signalled trust from the top leadership.
Arafi also chaired Al-Mustafa International University, a key institution for training clerics from Iran and abroad, and in 2019 was appointed to the powerful Guardian Council, the constitutional body that vets legislation and candidates.
