Iran foreign minister suggests new supreme leader may be chosen within days

Abbas Araghchi says constitutional process is under way as Tehran mourns Ali Khamenei and vows resistance to US, Israel.

Iran could potentially elect a new supreme leader within one or two days, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has said, as the country begins a 40-day mourning period following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in joint US-Israeli strikes.

Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera as Iran continued to exchange fire with Israel and the United States, Araghchi confirmed that the constitutional machinery of succession was already turning.

“The transition council is established,” he said, describing a three-member body comprising the president, the head of the judiciary, and a jurist from the Guardian Council. “This group of three would act as in charge of the leadership before the new leader is elected. I assume that it takes a short period of time. Maybe in one or two days, they will elect a new leader for the country.” 

President Masoud Pezeshkian confirmed on Sunday that the council “has begun its work”, in a prerecorded address aired on Iranian state television, in which he also condemned Khamenei’s killing as “a great crime” and declared seven days of public holidays alongside the mourning period.