Iran's Next Leader: A Murky, High-Stakes Succession
Iran faces an unsettled path to a new supreme leader after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's death, with the Assembly of Experts set to choose from contenders such as Mojtaba Khamenei, Alireza Arafi, Mohammad Mehdi Mirbagheri, Hassan Khomeini, and Hashem Hosseini Bushehri. Any successor must be a male cleric who meets constitutional requirements and shows loyalty to the Islamic Republic, but internal power dynamics and regional pressures could shape the outcome, and reformist clerics may be sidelined in the likelyگیری selection process.