Iran Moves to Form Interim Leadership Council

(MENAFN) Iran moved swiftly to reconstitute its government Sunday, activating a three-member interim leadership council following the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed during sweeping American and Israeli strikes on the country a day earlier.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian announced the council’s formation and the commencement of its operations in a video message broadcast by state-run media, hours after Tehran officially confirmed Khamenei’s death.

Pezeshkian declared that the council would carry forward Khamenei’s legacy without hesitation, warning that Iran’s armed forces stood prepared to “smash” the bases of the “enemies.”

The legal framework for the transition had been outlined earlier Sunday by Ali Larijani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, who cited Article 111 of Iran’s Constitution — a provision stipulating that in the absence of a supreme leader, the president, judiciary chief, and a jurist from the Constitutional Council shall collectively assume leadership responsibilities on a temporary basis.

Shortly after, an Iranian news agency reported that the Expediency Discernment Council had appointed Alireza Arafi, a jurist drawn from the country’s Constitutional Council, to serve on the interim body. The council is completed by Pezeshkian himself and Judiciary Chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei.

The political upheaval follows Saturday’s large-scale joint assault by the United States and Israel, which also claimed the life of former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and several other high-ranking officials. The strikes prompted Iran to launch retaliatory attacks against Israeli and American targets across the broader Middle East, plunging the region into its most volatile crisis in decades.

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