Iran Forms Three-Member Interim Leadership Council to Act as Supreme Leader [US Iran Airstrikes]

Formed by the President, Judiciary Chief, and Legal Expert
Real Power Expected to Be Held by Mokhber and Larijani

With the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an interim Leadership Council composed of three members will be formed in accordance with the constitution.

Tehran citizens mourning the death of Iran's Supreme Leader. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

According to Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency on March 1 (local time), Article 111 of the constitution stipulates that in the event of the Supreme Leader’s incapacitation or death, a leadership council will be formed consisting of President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and one Islamic law expert from the Guardian Council. This council will act as the Supreme Leader and carry out his duties and powers during the transitional period.

According to the constitution, the Assembly of Experts, an official constitutional body in Iran, must elect a new Supreme Leader as swiftly as possible. Iranian experts believe that, rather than the institutionally established interim Leadership Council, real power during this period of crisis is likely to be held by former Vice President Mokhber, who was known as “Khamenei’s right-hand man,” and Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who is currently in charge of military and security affairs.

Meanwhile, the Iranian government officially confirmed the previous day that Major General Mohammad Pakpour, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Ali Shamkhani, Ayatollah Khamenei’s chief security adviser, were killed in airstrikes carried out by the United States and Israel.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.