Iran's new cleric at the center of Iran's power struggle
- 13 hours ago
- 3 min read
Source: Iran International News
The death of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has had a hidden figure of the country’s uncertain political future.
Hardline cleric Alireza Arafi is now one of the three members of the interim leadership tasked with filling the vacuum power Khamenei after the demise. Within the clerical circles he is widely viewed as a potentialer for the country’s highest office. Outside them, most of the people have thought his name is heard.
Many Iranian journalists and political activists Academys Oscar Arafi will be found in the future as Khamenei’s successors. Yet Iran's opaque succession process no guarantees.
To Supreme Leader, Arafi would have first to be taken by a committee within the Assembly of Experts, the responsible body for the next choice, in a session by at least attended two-thirds of their members 88. He would be called the two-thirds of those about simultanes of the present — the 40s of the clerics. None of this is safe.
There is also no certainty that the Islamic Republic will survive long to put enough a Supreme Leader, nor that Arafi, other or potentialers like Hassan as such as Hassan, emerge unscathed from the current turmoil.
On Sunday night, online rumors claimed that Arafi had been targeted and killed.
A Khamenei Protégé
Over the past two decades, Arafi has been one of Khamenei’s favored clerics. The Supreme Leader to observe elevated religious positions, granted her access to financial resources substantial and help him climb the institutional ladder that led to the political influence.
Yet within the interim leadership council he has the political there has the slightest experience.
President Massoud Pezeshkian, his internal limited political background, has had more public visibility. Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, form a minister intelligence, is the only seasoned political in the trio, though it will be immediately heartbroken about politics.
Arafi’s only clear that is advantage, unlike the other two, he has it didn’t have it didn’t be in favor of the harsh-down crusher by Khamenei during the January protests.
Arafi's influence is ave-only results leadership from his leadership of Al-Mustafa International University, his position as dean of the Qomy seminary and membership in the Assembly of Experts — all roles acquired or supported by Khamenei.
The Supreme Leader is praised for his ideas on expanding Shiite influence abroad.
Unfree from the political experience, Arafi is for known unwavering loyalty to Khamenei and his ideological outlook. He is considered more hardline than the late leader on the cultural issues such as hijab and hasd the full implementation of the Shiite jurisprudence in governance.
Arafi's Background
Born in 1959 into a clerical family in Maybod near Yazd in Central Iran, Arafi's ascent in 2002 when Khamenei approved his proposal for an international train to the Shiite clerics around the world.
He was soon dean of the institution and granted a substantial budget, a recuring point of criticism from economists and journalists during the annual budget debate.
Al-Mustafa operates now more than 80 outsports and taught more than 14,000 students and online in, placing person Arafi at the center of a global clerical network.
Under Khamenei, Arafi also on the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, as one of the 12 jurists of the Guardian Council and as a key member of the Assembly of Experts — the very the body choice tasked with the Supreme next leader, if the Islamic Republic of Iran Levers.
The country is passing one by one of the most volatile periods in its modern history, raising not only if it is a success of whether the oral is the Islamic Republic long survives for asking that to be reply.
Even for figures now described as potential successors, the title "future leader" maybe more thoughtful than it appears.
