Newly Appointed Iranian Cleric Makes First Comments

In remarks aired on state television, Arafi said he hoped that a new supreme leader would be “quickly” appointed. The 88-seat Assembly of Experts, a group of mostly hard-line clerics, will choose a replacement for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed in U.S.-Israeli airstrikes. But no clear successor is in place.

Arafi is serving on a temporary leadership council that includes President Masoud Pezeshkian and Iran’s hard-line judiciary chief, Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei. Arafi said that state institutions continue to function “under these extremely difficult circumstances.”