Iran has begun looking for a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, a top Iranian official said Sunday.
In comments translated by Reuters, former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told the country’s ILNA news agency that the Assembly of Experts, the body responsible for electing the Islamic republic’s supreme leader, “will act when a new leader needs to be appointed. They are preparing for that now and are examining the options.”
Rafsanjani also noted that the Assembly may elect “a council of leaders if needed,” as opposed to a single ruler.
Officially comprised of 86 religious figures elected by the people, the Assembly of Experts chooses the supreme leader and monitors his actions.
The clerical body grants the leader, currently Khamenei, an indefinite term but it retains the power to sack him, if it sees fit.
Elections to the council are held approximately every 10 years, with the next round scheduled for February 2016. The run-up to the election has seen tensions between Iran’s conservative and moderate leaders, with hardliners recently cracking down on activists, journalists and artists in what some view as an effort to curb the influence of moderate President Hassan Rouhani.
“The hardliners are wary of Rouhani’s influence at home and abroad. They fear it may harm the balance of power in Iran,” an anonymous senior official close to Rouhani told Reuters in November.
Should Rouhani’s faction win in the February elections for the council in charge of selecting the supreme leader, it would empower reform-minded leaders.
Fuente: http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-examining-possible-successors-to-khame...
