The Wall Street Journal reported that the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has pushed the Islamic Republic into a historic, high-risk transition. Iran must navigate succession while absorbing a wide U.S.-Israel military campaign and managing simmering unrest at home. After 37 years in power, Khamenei leaves behind a system deliberately structured without an obvious heir, the Journal said, making the choice of the next leader both urgent and politically fraught.
According to the Journal, Iran’s constitution assigns the supreme leader’s duties temporarily to a three-person council composed of the president, the head of the judiciary, and one cleric from the Guardian Council. The Assembly of Experts—an 88-member clerical body—then selects the next supreme leader, a process the Journal described as likely to be shaped by consensus-building beyond the formal vote.
Detail
• The Journal said the interim council will manage the supreme leader’s sweeping authorities—commander in chief, and effective oversight of the judiciary, legislature, and executive—until a successor is chosen.
• Two names linked to the interim configuration have circulated as possible successors, the Journal reported:
• Alireza Arafi, a senior cleric who leads Iran’s seminaries and has generally stayed above day-to-day politics.
• Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, the judiciary chief, a hard-line figure strongly associated with the state’s crackdown on dissent.
• The Journal noted that other figures could act as power brokers during the transition, including Ali Larijani and former President Hassan Rouhani, both of whom have long experience inside Iran’s governing structure and, in Rouhani’s case, prior engagement with the West.
• A central theme in the Journal’s account is the expanded role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, described as an economic and political powerhouse whose influence has grown beyond the clerical establishment. The next supreme leader, the Journal suggested, may be a pious figure acceptable to senior clerics but also workable for military commanders and entrenched elites.
• The Journal also referenced commonly rumored candidates who carry political baggage, including Mojtaba Khamenei (limited religious credentials and sensitivities around hereditary succession) and Hassan Khomeini (the founder’s grandson, viewed as controversial within the system).
What next?
• The first test will be whether the interim arrangement and the Assembly of Experts retain real control of the process—or whether security and military power centers effectively drive the outcome.
• At the same time, the Journal emphasized that the most immediate battle for the system’s survival is occurring now, as the U.S. and Israel signal their campaign could continue for days.
