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3. Iran Activates Transition Council as Assembly of Experts Begins Supreme Leader Succession Process

Iran has announced that it has begun a transition phase overseen by the president, the head of the judiciary, and a jurist in the Guardian Council. 

This transition council will temporarily assume the duties of the Supreme Leader until a successor is chosen, as outlined in Article 111 of the Iranian constitution.

The Assembly of Experts—a body of 88 clerics—will begin to deliberate on Khamenei’s replacement. 

Under Iranian law, the process of determining the next Ayatollah is expected to be carried out quickly, however there are challenges to gathering the Assembly of Experts under active U.S. and Israeli strikes.

Since the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the only transfer of power between Supreme Leaders was in 1989 when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assumed the position after Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s death. 

In Khamenei’s 37 year-long tenure, the Iranian regime’s apparatus has consolidated under his rule. However, this time, there is no apparent heir to the role of Supreme Leader.