Head of Iran’s clerical body dies
Tehran/ Ankara Oct. 21: The chairman of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, the clerics who appoint and can dismiss the country’s Supreme Leader, has died, four months after suffering a heart attack, state media reported on Tuesday. Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, 83, died of heart failure, the official IRNA news agency said, opening up a vacancy near the top of Iran’s power structure.
President Hassan Rouhani announced two days of mourning for Kani, a former acting Prime Minister and interior minister who took on the influential position in March 2011.
Comprised of 86 religious figures elected by the people, the Assembly of Experts chooses the supreme leader and mon- itors his actions.
The death of 83- yearold Ayatollah Mohammad Reza Mahdavi Kani, reported by Iranian media, is unlikely to spark any direct policy change or jockeying for power, officials and analysts said. But with the health of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also under scrutiny after he underwent prostate surgery in September, any changes in the body that will choose his successor are sensitive and closely watched.
Under Iran’s Constitution, in case of the death, resignation, or dismissal of the leader, the Assembly of Experts has to take steps “within the shortest possible time for the appointment of the new leader”.
Created after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Assembly has never exercised its right to dismiss a leader, but it has turned into a potential arena for competition between rival factions in Iran’s complex power structure. Some analysts believe that securing a majority in the Assembly would help reinforce the position of supporters of President Hassan Rouhani.