Government supporters gather in mourning after state TV officially announced the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Tehran, Iran, March 1, 2026
IRAN declared 40 days’ mourning for its supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei today and appointed a temporary leadership council.
The 86-year-old, who had held power since 1989, was killed in a US or Israeli bombing raid on Saturday.
The leadership council includes Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, judicial chief Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei and a member of the Guardian Council. An 88-member Assembly of Experts, all Shi’ite clerics, will be responsible for electing a new supreme leader.
Khamenei was only the second supreme leader since Iran’s 1979 revolution, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also aged 86, in 1989. Ayatollah is a Shi’ite religious title unconnected to the office of supreme leader; Khamenei was neither the only nor the most senior ayatollah living.
In Iran’s theocratic system, the supreme leader commands the armed forces and the Revolutionary Guard, and is a more powerful position than that of the president, who is elected by universal suffrage but from a list approved by the Guardian Council.
