Khamenei Dead, Who Will Be The Next Supreme Leader Of Iran?
An 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts appoints the supreme leader.
Published : March 1, 2026 at 8:56 AM IST
New Delhi: Iran on Sunday entered an unprecedented transitional phase following the assassination of its paramount decision maker, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a joint attack by the United States and Israel on Saturday.
According to Iran State Television, Masoud Pezeshkian, the country’s president, and two other top officials will lead Iran in the transitional period. There has been only one other transfer of power in the office of the supreme leader of Iran since the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1989. Khomeini died at the age of 86, after serving as the figurehead of the revolution and leading Iran through its bloody eight-year war with Iraq.
The supreme leader is at the heart of Iran's complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has final say over all matters of state. He also serves as the commander-in-chief of the country's military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard.
Iranian law says the Assembly of Experts "must, as soon as possible", pick a new supreme leader. But until then, a leadership council can step in and "temporarily assume all the duties of leadership."
The assembly is made up of Iran's sitting president, the head of the country's judiciary and a member of the Guardian Council chosen by Iran's Expediency Council, which advises the supreme leader and settles disputes with parliament.
Other than Pezeshkian, the Iranian Judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and another official from the country's legal council will be part of the trio overseeing the transition, according to state television, which cited Mohammad Mokhber, one of Khamenei's advisors.
What Happens Next?
An 88-member panel called the Assembly of Experts appoints the supreme leader. The panel can remove one as well, although that has never happened.
The panel consists entirely of Shiite clerics who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by the Guardian Council, Iran's constitutional watchdog. That body is known for disqualifying candidates in various elections in Iran and the Assembly of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council barred former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate whose administration struck the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from election for the Assembly of Experts in March 2024.
Clerical deliberations about succession and machinations over it take place far from the public eye, making it hard to gauge who may be a top contender.
Possible Contenders
Earlier, it was thought that Khamenei's protégé, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, might try to take the mantle. However, he was killed in a May 2024 helicopter crash. That has left one of Khamenei's sons, Mojtaba, a 56-year-old Shiite cleric, as a potential candidate, though he has never held government office. But a father-to-son transfer in the case of a supreme leader could spark anger, not only among Iranians already critical of clerical rule, but also among supporters of the system. Some may see it as un-Islamic and in line with creating a new, religious dynasty after the 1979 collapse of the U.S.-backed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi's government.
Khamenei himself had previously told his followers that he did not want the post of Supreme Leader to become hereditary. According to a New York Times report, during the 12-day war with Israel in June, when Khamenei was in hiding, he identified three candidates who could be quickly appointed as his successor.
The candidates were the head of the judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i; Khamenei’s chief of staff, Ali Asghar Hejazi; and Hassan Khomeini, a moderate cleric from the reformist camp and a grandson of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
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