Ayatollahs call for quick selection of new Supreme Leader

Following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei one week ago, several influential clerics in Iran have called for the prompt election of a new Supreme Leader.

Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi urged the country’s Assembly of Experts to act quickly, saying in a statement on Saturday: “The timely realization of this important matter will lead to national authority and the best possible organization of affairs,” News.Az reports, citing CNN.

His call was echoed by two other clerics, according to Iranian state media.
Ayatollah Nouri Hamedani emphasized accelerating the leadership election, according to state news agency IRNA, while Ayatollah Abdolkarim Abedini said that “any shortcoming in the selection of the leader will be blamed on all those involved.”

Abedini is not a member of the Assembly.

On Friday, Jamileh Alamolhoda, widow of Iran’s former President Ibrahim Raisi, also called on the Assembly of Experts to “promptly identify and select a new leader, (and) block the path of discord and division.”

It’s unclear whether the Assembly, a panel of 88 clerics, has been able to meet since US and Israeli airstrikes began a week ago.

Analysts regard Khamenei’s son Mojtaba as one of the leading candidates to succeed his father, but he has not been heard from in the last week.

The Assembly’s building in the city of Qom was heavily damaged last week.

Israel has threatened to target Khamenei’s successor. Defense minister Israel Katz wrote on X last week that every leader appointed by the Iranian regime to “lead the plan to destroy Israel … and to suppress the Iranian people — will be a target for elimination.”

Until a new supreme leader is chosen a temporary three-man council is in daily charge of the government, comprising the president, the head of the judiciary and a cleric nominated by the Assembly.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli