Who are the council members temporarily in charge of Iran? | Explainer News

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 almost 4 a long time. Tehran has since focused Israeli and US property positioned throughout Gulf international locations in retaliatory strikes.

Whereas US President Donald Trump has mentioned 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 encompass 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 struggle?

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 ensure they conform to Islamic ideas. 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 Consultants, the physique accountable for overseeing the collection of the supreme chief. He leads Friday prayers in Qom, Iran’s most vital non secular centre, and heads the seminary system, overseeing schooling for non secular leaders nationwide.

Masoud Pezeshkian

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

He beforehand served as well being minister beneath 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 received 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 mentioned in a press release that Iran now considers “it its respectable 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 publish 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 known as “rioters”.

Mohseni-Ejei mentioned the US and Israel “overtly and explicitly supported the unrest” within the nation after Trump known 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 can most likely be your solely likelihood for generations,” he mentioned on Saturday after the US and Israeli assaults on Iran started.