How does succession work in Iran and who will be the country’s next supreme leader?

Dubai, United Arab Emirates — The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has raised major questions about the future of the country. And a clerical panel was appointed to replace him, succession is a complex issue in Iran’s theocracy:

Here’s what to know:

An 88-member committee called the Council of Experts appoints the Supreme Leader. The panel could also remove one, though that has never happened.

The committee is made up entirely of Shiite clerics, who are popularly elected every eight years and whose candidacies are approved by Iran’s constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council. That organization is known for disqualifying candidates in various elections in Iran, and the Assembly of Experts is no different. The Guardian Council blocked former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, whose administration struck a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from holding elections for the Assembly of Experts in March 2024.

Iranian law says the Assembly of Experts must choose a new supreme leader “as soon as possible.” But until then, the Leadership Council can step in and “temporarily assume all leadership duties.”

The assembly is made up of Iran’s sitting president, the head of the country’s judiciary, and members of the Guardian Council elected by Iran’s Expediency Council, which advises the Supreme Leader and settles disputes with the parliament. If that happened now, Iran’s reformist President Massoud Pezheshkian and hardline judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Eji would be on that leadership council.

Clerical debates about the succession and intrigues over it take place away from the public eye, making it difficult to gauge who might be the top contender.

Earlier, it was thought that Khamenei’s protégé, hardliner President Ibrahim Raisi, might try to take over the mantle. However, he died in a helicopter crash in May 2024. That leaves one of Khamenei’s sons, the 56-year-old Shiite cleric Mojtaba, as a possible candidate, although he has not held government office. But a father-son transfer of the supreme leader could anger not only Iranians already critical of the clerical regime, but also supporters of the system. Some may see this as un-Islamic and in line with the creation of a new, religious dynasty after the fall of the US-backed government of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in ​​1979.

Another transfer of power occurred in the office of Iran’s Supreme Leader after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In 1989, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini died at the age of 86, a key figure in the revolution and leading Iran through a bloody eight-year war with Iraq. The transition comes now after Israel launched a 12-day war against Iran in June 2025.

The Supreme Leader is at the heart of Iran’s complex power-sharing Shiite theocracy and has the final say on all matters of state.

He serves as commander-in-chief of the country’s military and the powerful Revolutionary Guard, a paramilitary force designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 2019 and empowered under Khamenei’s rule. The Guard, which leads the self-described “Axis of Resistance,” a series of militant groups and allies across the Middle East to counter the US and Israel, has extensive wealth and holdings in Iran.