PHOTO: Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — will his death lead to a fixed-term Council?


Elements of Iran’s regime showed more concern on Friday about the position of the Supreme Leader, with the Tehran Friday Prayer emphasizing that the successor to Ayatollah Khamenei must be “revolutionary”.

The concern has been raised by the unexpected outcome of February 26 elections in which a centrist-reformist alliance made significant gains, including in the Assembly of Experts, the body which chooses the Supreme Leader.

The success — despite the attempt of the Guardian Council to shape the elections for Parliament and the Assembly by disqualifying thousands of candidates — raised the possibility that former President Hashemi Rafsanjani might regain the Assembly chair that he held from 2007 to 2011.

The current head of the Assembly, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, lost his seat in the elections. The vote for his replacement is scheduled on May 24.

Rafsanjani has proposed that the Supreme Leader be replaced by a fixed-term Council after the death of Ayatollah Khamenei.

On Thursday, the Supreme Leader addressed the Assembly and drew the line that the members must “remain revolutionary, think revolutionarily, and act revolutionarily”.

See Iran Daily, March 11: Supreme Leader Criticizes President, Expresses Sorrow Over Election Outcome

Yesterday the Tehran Friday Prayer leader, Ayatollah Emami Kashani, repeated, “[Khamenei] said…that you must be careful when choosing someone to lead after me: he must be committed to the revolution, the nation, and the country’s scientific advancement.”

The cleric, speaking from guidelines set by the Leader’s office, said the three most important duties of Government officials are “the resistance economy, scientific acceleration…, and the country’s independence from foreigners’ influence”.