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Iran’s security chief Ali Larijani said a transition process following the killing of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will begin Sunday.
“An interim leadership council will soon be formed. The president, the head of the judiciary and a jurist from the Guardian Council will assume responsibility until the election of the next leader,” said Larijani, head of Iran’s top security body, the Supreme National Security Council, and a former adviser to Khamenei.
“This council will be established as soon as possible. We are working to form it as early as today,” Larijani said in an interview broadcast on state television.
Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iranian leader Ali Khamenei, also outlined the constitutional process for filling the leadership vacuum.
Speaking on Iranian state television, Mokhber said Article 111 of the Iranian Constitution would be implemented.
“According to Article 111 of the Constitution, in the event of the leader’s death, resignation, or removal from office, the Assembly of Experts is obliged to determine and announce a new leader as soon as possible. Until a new leader is selected, a council consisting of three persons—the president, the head of the judiciary, and a jurist from the Guardian Council to be chosen by the Expediency Discernment Council—temporarily assumes the duties of leadership,” Mokhber said.
Iranian state television announced Sunday that Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in US-Israeli attacks targeting Iran on Saturday.
Iranian television said that “the Leader of the Revolution and the Islamic Republic of Iran, Sayyed Ali Khamenei, was martyred” in the US-Israeli aggression that began early Saturday.
Fars News Agency reported that Khamenei “was martyred in his office while carrying out his duties during the early hours of Saturday,” adding that his daughter, son-in-law, and grandson were also killed in the attacks.
The Iranian government declared 40 days of national mourning and ordered the suspension of official institutions for seven days.
“This great crime will not pass without response, and a new chapter will be written in the history of the Islamic world,” the government said in a statement.
The Supreme National Security Council said Khamenei’s death would mark the beginning of a “great uprising against the tyrants of the world.”
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps vowed an “overwhelming and decisive revenge” against those responsible for Khamenei’s killing and said it would launch retaliatory attacks against Israel and US bases in the region “in the near future,” according to IRNA.
The statement described the strikes as a “criminal and terrorist act” and said the “hand of revenge of the Iranian people to punish the killers with severe, decisive, and regret-inducing punishment will not leave them.”
The IRGC also urged all segments of society to participate in national defense gatherings to demonstrate unity, saying Khamenei’s path “will not stop after his martyrdom but will continue with strength and grandeur.”
US President Donald Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that “Khamenei, one of the most evil figures in history, is dead.”
Trump added that “heavy and pinpoint bombing, however, will continue, uninterrupted throughout the week or as long as necessary to achieve our objective of PEACE THROUGHOUT THE MIDDLE EAST AND, INDEED, THE WORLD!”
The Iranian government said Khamenei’s death “will not go unpunished,” emphasizing that the perpetrators and those who ordered the attack “will be made to regret it.”
The crisis began early Saturday when Israel and the United States carried out strikes on multiple Iranian cities, including Tehran, Isfahan, Karaj, Qom, Tabriz, Bushehr, Kermanshah and Ilam.
Israel described the operation as a “pre-emptive attack,” with Trump announcing “major combat operations” targeting Iran.
Israel and Iran closed their airspace. Israel declared a state of emergency, and civilians were urged to seek shelter in anticipation of Iranian counterattacks.
Iran reported firing dozens of ballistic missiles at Israel and launching strikes on US targets in Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Jordan using missiles and kamikaze drones. The Iranian Red Crescent said at least 201 people were killed and 747 were injured in the attacks.
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