A week of attacks on Iran and the assassination of its Supreme Leader and senior commanders has plunged Iran into crisis – who will be in charge now and who will take their place?
Which senior leaders have passed away?
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was a prize target, and on the first day of the war an Israeli strike destroyed his Tehran compound, killing him and members of his family.
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The 86-year-old has been in power for 37 years since taking over from the regime’s founder in 1989.
He had the final say in all matters of state – over the country’s president – and led a system that brutally suppressed public dissent and killed his own people.
Israel claimed that 40 top army commanders were taken out in the initial airstrikes.
Clockwise from top left: Mohammad Pakpour, Aziz Nasirzadeh, Abdolrahim Mousavi, Ali Shamkhani. Images: Reuters
Among them are the Chief of the Armed Forces, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, and the Minister of Defense, General Aziz Nasirzadeh.
Major General Mohammad Pakpoor, the head of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), was also reportedly killed.
Ayatollah Khamenei was killed when his compound was struck by air (below).
Pakpoor had only been on the job since June, when Hussain Salami was killed in the 12-day war. Israel And Iran In June 2025.
Ali Shamkhani, Khamenei’s top security adviser, was also killed in the airstrike, according to Israel. He was overseeing recent negotiations with the US over Iran’s nuclear and missile programs.
Who is in charge now?
A three-person leadership council temporarily assumed the duties of the supreme leader in accordance with Islamic Republic law.
It includes Iranian President Massoud Pezheshkian, Judiciary Chief and former Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ezee, and Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, head of Iran’s seminaries.
Ali Larijani, secretary of the National Security Council and a top adviser to the slain Supreme Leader, is also likely to play an important role.
After the US-Israeli airstrikes, he took to social media to say that Iran would not negotiate with US President Donald Trump and accused him of “illusory ambitions”.
Who will choose the new Supreme Leader?
An 88-member panel, known as the Assembly of Experts, is deciding who takes over – regardless of what Mr Trump wants to say.
The committee is made up of Shia clerics whose candidacy has been approved by Iran’s Constitutional Guard.
One member, Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, identified candidates for state TV but did not publicly name them.
Under the country’s law, the selection process must take place as soon as possible – and a decision is believed to be imminent.
The announcement may be withheld until the Assembly is assured that the new Supreme Leader is as safe as possible from enemy attack.
Israel has promised to hunt down whoever it chooses.
Mr Trump has said he now wants to elect a new Iranian leader – the same way a president sympathetic to the US was recently installed. Venezuela.
“We have to choose that person along with Iran,” he told Reuters news agency
Who is the favorite to take over?
The supreme leader must be a senior figure with political and religious authority.
Khamenei’s authority was often exercised through close advisers but it is unclear how many survived and it is not publicly recorded that a successor has been named.
Mojtaba Khamenei (pictured in 2019) may follow in his father’s footsteps. File photo: AP
His son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is strongly believed to be the frontrunner and has long been tipped as a potential successor.
He fought for a battalion of the IRGC in the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s and is believed to still have close links with it.
The 56-year-old wields great influence in Iran internally despite being only a mid-ranking cleric and has never held government office.
A US diplomatic document disclosed by WikiLeaks in 2008 described him as the “principal gatekeeper” to his father and the “power behind the clothes”.
Hassan Khomeini – grandson of the first supreme leader and founder of the republic, Ayatollah Khomeini – is also believed to be a candidate.
However, his support for a reformist faction that has been sidelined in recent decades makes him less electable.
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, one of the three on the Provisional Governing Council, is also believed to be under consideration.
Regime change
In the wake of the first attack on Saturday, Mr. Trump Forced Iranians to topple the regime – it is alleged Killing thousands of its own citizens In recent weeks.
He called it “the single biggest opportunity for the Iranian people to get their country back.”
Mr Trump said many in the IRGC, military and police forces “don’t want to fight anymore”.
However, the terrified IRGC still remains loyal and there are no signs of further popular uprisings in the streets.
Many experts say that airstrikes alone cannot force change and that ground force is needed.
There are Kurdish forces in neighboring Iraq told Sky News They are desperate to engage but need more support from the US to pave the way.
Before the Iranian Revolution, Iran was ruled by a monarchy, with the king known as the “Shah”.
Reza PahlaviThe US-born son of the Shah, who was deposed in the 1979 revolution, said: “With (Khamenei’s) death, the Islamic Republic has reached its end and will soon be consigned to the dustbin of history.”
