Next Supreme Leader of Iran election

An election for the third supreme leader of Iran will be held following the end of the current tenure of Ali Khamenei. As of June 2025, no person has been officially declared as the heir to Khamenei nor as a nominee, though various sources such as Reuters and BBC News have reported on potential candidates.

In 2014, it was reported that the succession of Khamenei is deemed to have been decided but not disclosed publicly. Constitutionally, the Assembly of Experts is tasked to select the next leader. Its sixth and current session began after it was elected in 2024 and is scheduled to sit until 2032. Khamenei was born in April 1939 and would be 92 by the end of this term.

Khamenei has not discussed his replacement. He has said the selection must be made without shame or regard for expediency, rather based on the three principles of "truth, the need of the country and God". As of 2024, a four-member council of the Assembly of Experts was examining possible candidates in secrecy while advising the current leader. One of the members said that a successor had already been chosen but declined to disclose their identity for their safety.

Prior to this death, President Ebrahim Raisi was often mentioned in the frontrunners for the position. Raisi's death in a helicopter crash in May 2024 cut short his potential candidacy. Currently, the four potential candidates to succeed Khamenei include his son Mojtaba Khamenei, his close aides Sadiq Larijani and Mohsen Araki, as well as Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the Islamic Republic's founder Ruhollah Khomeini.