01 March,2026 05:22 PM IST | Tehran | mid-day online correspondent
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi. Pic/X
Hours after long-time Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a US-Israeli airstrike, Iran on Sunday appointed Ayatollah Alireza Arafi as his interim successor.
Ayatollah Khamenei, whose death in an attack on his residential compound in Tehran was confirmed by Iranian authorities, had held the position of Supreme Leader since 1989, succeeding Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini - the founder of the 1979 Islamic Revolution - who passed away that year.
Following the announcement of Khamenei's death, the government stated that a three-member council - comprising President Masoud Pezeshkian, Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and a jurist from the Guardian Council - would oversee the country's leadership during the transitional period, according to the IRNA news agency.
As per Iran's constitution, this council assumes leadership responsibilities until the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member clerical body with ultimate authority over the political system, armed forces, and key institutions, appoints a permanent successor.
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a prominent Shia cleric and Islamic jurist born in 1959 in Meybod, central Iran, currently heads Iran's Centre for the Management of Islamic Seminaries and has been Director of the revered Qom Seminary since 2016. He is also a member of the powerful Guardian Council, which vets legislation and supervises elections.
Arafi previously served as President of Al-Mustafa International University from 2008 to 2018 and has been a permanent member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution since 2011.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Sunday said Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed inside his leadership compound in central Tehran, asserting that the operation marked the end of what it described as a decades-long chapter of terror directed against Israel.
Khamenei was killed in an epochal attack by the United States (US) and Israel, marking an inflexion point in the 46-year Shia-theocratic rule, as Tehran's retaliation set off conflagrations in a swath of the Middle East.
In its official announcement, the Israeli military detailed the circumstances of the strike, stating, "The Air Force, under precise intelligence guidance from the Military Intelligence and in cooperation with the Military Intelligence, attacked the leadership compound in the heart of Tehran where he was staying along with other senior officials."
The Israeli military described Khamenei as the head of what it termed the Iranian "terrorist regime" since 1989 and accused him of advancing an extremist ideology directed against Israel and Western nations. It further alleged that he was "directly responsible for the violent repression of Iranian citizens for many years."
"Khamenei was the father of the plan to destroy the State of Israel, the 'head of the Iranian octopus', who sent his arms throughout the Middle East and to the borders of the State of Israel, led by the terrorist organisation Hezbollah. The leader of the regime was responsible for terrorist attacks on the State of Israel and had the blood of many citizens from all over the world on his hands," the IDF added.
The military said the killing was part of a broader campaign targeting key figures aligned with what it called the "Iranian terror axis".
(With IANS inputs)
