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10 yrs after election loss, Alireza Arafi is Iran's interim leader: How he rose
10 yrs after election loss, Alireza Arafi is Iran's interim leader: How he rose to likely succeed Ayatollah Khamenei
10 yrs after election loss, Alireza Arafi is Iran's interim leader: How he rose to likely succeed Ayatollah Khamenei
The 2016 setback did not derail Alireza Arafi. He won upon later attempts; also got prominent appointments.
Updated on: Mar 01, 2026 5:46 PM IST By Aarish Chhabra Share via Copy link The Islamic Republic of Iran's constitution has a clause for extreme moments — such as when the Supreme Leader dies, or is assassinated as has happened in the case of Ali Khamenei. Born in 1959 in the historic town of Meybod in the central Iranian province of Yazd, Arafi comes from a clerical family, according to his official profile. (Photo: Khamenei.ir) A cleric, the President, and the Chief justice step in to hold the state together until a successor is found. The cleric's position has now gone to Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a man who could not win an election in 2016.Who is Ayatollah Arafi?
Arafi now sits in a provisional leadership council steering a country in crisis, following the killing of Ali Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli strike on Saturday. Alongside President Masoud Pezeshkian and Chief Justice Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i, he forms the leadership council that will exercise the Supreme Leader's duties until the Assembly of Experts selects a permanent successor, news agency Reuters reported on Sunday. Born in 1959 in Meybod, in Iran's Yazd Province, Arafi is a product of the Qom seminaries that form the backbone of the Islamic Republic's clerical class. Fluent in Arabic and English, the author of more than two dozen books, he built his institutional career far from public view. He is the kind of figure who accumulates influence through appointments rather than popular politics, as per an analysis by the think tank Middle East Institute.The election he did not win
The February 2016 Assembly of Experts election was, by Iranian standards, a rare upset. In Tehran, where 16 seats were contested, a reformist-leaning electoral list backed by the veteran pragmatist Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani swept to victory, taking 15 of 16 available seats, news agencies reported at the time. The wave cost sitting hardliners and it left Arafi, running as a conservative candidate then, without a seat. He had been approved to stand by the Guardian Council, passed the ideological tests, and competed. He simply did not receive enough votes from a Tehran electorate that, that year, chose to send a different message. The 2016 setback did not derail him. He did not need to wait for the next scheduled election, in 2024. When a vacancy arose, Arafi entered through a midterm by-election in June 2021. Khamenei, it appears, had additional work for him anyway.Rose through ranks nonetheless
From 2009 to 2018, Arafi served as president of Al-Mustafa International University, the Qom-based institution dedicated to exporting Shia scholarship abroad. During his tenure, Arafi reportedly claimed the institute had played a role in the conversion of tens of millions to Shia Islam; he has also backed the use of AI to spread ideology. He rose to head Iran's entire Islamic seminary system, overseeing the country's network of religious schools. Khamenei then placed him on the Guardian Council, the body that vets laws and election candidates. According to researcher Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute, Khamenei's willingness to appoint Arafi to senior and strategically sensitive positions showed he had “a great deal of confidence in his bureaucratic abilities”.Comeback from ballot setback
By the time Iranians voted in the March 2024 Assembly of Experts election — the body empowered to appoint and supervise the Supreme Leader — Arafi had accumulated enough institutional capital to run not merely as a candidate but as a frontrunner. He emerged as the top vote-getter in Tehran, AP reported at the time. Within this Assembly, he was elected its second deputy chairman, placing him in the core of Iran's succession machinery. The MEI noted, however, that the 2024 election was a “heavily curated affair”: of 510 candidates who registered, the Guardian Council disqualified 366, leaving only 144 to compete for 88 seats. Critics called it a "meaningless and non-competitive" exercise.Where he stands now
Arafi is described by observers as a regime insider but without historically strong ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. He is, however, known for advocating the modernisation of Iranian institutions, including the adaptation of artificial intelligence within religious governance. Iran's 88-member Assembly of Experts must now select a permanent Supreme Leader "as soon as possible" under Iranian law. The Council on Foreign Relations had identified Arafi as among the clerics most likely to be considered for a permanent role, alongside figures such as Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri and Hojjat-ol-Eslam Mohsen Qomi. For now, Iran is observing 40 days of national mourning and seeking to counter Israeli and American strikes over Tehran and other places. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aarish Chhabra Aarish Chhabra is an Associate Editor with the Hindustan Times online team, writing news reports and explanatory articles, besides overseeing coverage for the website. His career spans nearly two decades across India's most respected newsrooms in print, digital, and broadcast. He has reported, written, and edited across formats — from breaking news and live election coverage, to analytical long-reads and cultural commentary — building a body of work that reflects both editorial rigour and a deep curiosity about the society he writes for. Aarish studied English literature, sociology and history, besides journalism, at Panjab University, Chandigarh, and started his career in that city, eventually moving to Delhi. He is also the author of ‘The Big Small Town: How Life Looks from Chandigarh’, a collection of critical essays originally serialised as a weekly column in the Hindustan Times, examining the culture and politics of a city that is far more than its famous architecture — and, in doing so, holding up a mirror to modern India. In stints at the BBC, The Indian Express, NDTV, and Jagran New Media, he worked across formats and languages; mainly English, also Hindi and Punjabi. He was part of the crack team for the BBC Explainer project replicated across the world by the broadcaster. At Jagran, he developed editorial guides and trained journalists on integrity and content quality. He has also worked at the intersection of journalism and education. At the Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, he developed a website that simplified academic research in management. At Bennett University's Times School of Media in Noida, he taught students the craft of digital journalism: from newsgathering and writing, to social media strategy and video storytelling. Having moved from a small town to a bigger town to a mega city for education and work, his intellectual passions lie at the intersection of society, politics, and popular culture — a perspective that informs both his writing and his view of the world. When not working, he is constantly reading long-form journalism or watching brainrot content, sometimes both at the same time.Read More Islamic Republic Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Get the latest headlines from US news and global updates from Pakistan, Nepal, UK, Bangladesh, Russia, and Bangladesh election result 2026 LIVE get all the latest headlines in one place on Hindustan Times. News / World News / 10 Yrs After Election Loss, Alireza Arafi Is Iran's Interim Leader: How He Rose To Likely Succeed Ayatollah Khamenei See LessThe Islamic Republic of Iran's constitution has a clause for extreme moments — such as when the Supreme Leader dies, or is assassinated as has happened in the case of Ali Khamenei.
A cleric, the President, and the Chief justice step in to hold the state together until a successor is found.
The cleric's position has now gone to Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, a man who could not win an election in 2016.
Born in 1959 in Meybod, in Iran's Yazd Province, Arafi is a product of the Qom seminaries that form the backbone of the Islamic Republic's clerical class.
Fluent in Arabic and English, the author of more than two dozen books, he built his institutional career far from public view. He is the kind of figure who accumulates influence through appointments rather than popular politics, as per an analysis by the think tank Middle East Institute.
The wave cost sitting hardliners and it left Arafi, running as a conservative candidate then, without a seat. He had been approved to stand by the Guardian Council, passed the ideological tests, and competed. He simply did not receive enough votes from a Tehran electorate that, that year, chose to send a different message.
The 2016 setback did not derail him. He did not need to wait for the next scheduled election, in 2024. When a vacancy arose, Arafi entered through a midterm by-election in June 2021.
Khamenei, it appears, had additional work for him anyway.
He rose to head Iran's entire Islamic seminary system, overseeing the country's network of religious schools.
Khamenei then placed him on the Guardian Council, the body that vets laws and election candidates. According to researcher Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute, Khamenei's willingness to appoint Arafi to senior and strategically sensitive positions showed he had “a great deal of confidence in his bureaucratic abilities”.
He emerged as the top vote-getter in Tehran, AP reported at the time.
Within this Assembly, he was elected its second deputy chairman, placing him in the core of Iran's succession machinery.
The MEI noted, however, that the 2024 election was a “heavily curated affair”: of 510 candidates who registered, the Guardian Council disqualified 366, leaving only 144 to compete for 88 seats. Critics called it a "meaningless and non-competitive" exercise.
Iran's 88-member Assembly of Experts must now select a permanent Supreme Leader "as soon as possible" under Iranian law.
The Council on Foreign Relations had identified Arafi as among the clerics most likely to be considered for a permanent role, alongside figures such as Ayatollah Hashem Hosseini Bushehri and Hojjat-ol-Eslam Mohsen Qomi.
For now, Iran is observing 40 days of national mourning and seeking to counter Israeli and American strikes over Tehran and other places.
Source: HindustanTimes
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