Who Will Be Iran’s Next Supreme Leader?

If the succession process can be carried out as Khamenei intended, it will likely bring a hardliner into power.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s death on Saturday after U.S. and Israeli airstrikes hit his compound immediately re-invoked the succession issue inside Iran, along with threats from the U.S. president to interfere in the process. While serving as the supreme leader for almost thirty-seven years and as the longest-acting head of state in the region since the shah, Khamenei faced scrutiny and speculation for years over who he would favor as his successor.





