Officials say a candidate has been picked, based on the late supreme leader’s advice that his replacement should ‘be hated by the enemy’.
Published On 8 Mar 2026
The clerical body that will choose Iran’s next supreme leader, following the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reached a majority consensus, according to Assembly of Experts member Ayatollah Mohammad-Mahdi Mirbagheri.
Iran’s Mehr news agency on Sunday quoted him as saying “some obstacles” still needed to be resolved regarding the process.
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Under the Iranian constitution, it is the 88-member Assembly of Experts that is authorised to choose the country’s supreme leader.
Khamenei, who ruled Iran for 37 years, was killed in a United States-Israeli strike on Tehran on February 28, at the outset of the war which has now embroiled much of the Middle East.
The Israeli military, meanwhile, warned it would pursue every person in the Assembly of Experts who seeks to appoint a successor for Khamenei.
“We warn all those who intend to participate in the successor selection meeting that we will not hesitate to target you either. This is a warning!” the Israeli military said in Persian in a post on X on Sunday.
In a video posted by Fars news agency on Telegram, Mirbagheri said “great efforts to determine the leadership” have been made and that “a decisive and unanimous opinion” has been agreed upon.
In a separate Fars interview, another member of the body, Hojjatoleslam Jafari, said he hopes “all Iranian people will be satisfied as soon as possible”.
“The delay in electing the third leader is bitter and unwanted for everyone, and there is no alternative, so we should not have bad thoughts about our representatives at this difficult time,” he said.
According to Iranian media reports, the group of scholars had a minor disagreement over whether their final decision must follow an in-person meeting or instead be issued without adhering to this formality.
Ayatollah Mohsen Heidari Alekasir, another member of the Assembly of Experts, said in a video released by Nournews on Sunday that an in-person meeting by the assembly for a final vote was not possible under the current conditions.
He said a candidate had been picked, based on Khamenei’s advice that Iran’s top leader should “be hated by the enemy” instead of praised by it.
“Even the Great Satan [the US] has mentioned his name,” Heidari Alekasir said of the chosen successor, days after US President Donald Trump said the late supreme leader’s son, Mojtaba Hosseini Khamenei, was an “unacceptable” choice for him.
