I thought they killed this guy?
Firebrand anti-American cleric Alireza Arafi seen as contender to replace Iran’s Khamenei
Ayatollah Alireza Arafi's nomination increases his chances to replace Khamenei, Iran expert says
By Benjamin Weinthal Fox News
Published March 2, 2026 3:58pm EST
The Islamic Republic’s opaque and fractured governing system following the killing of its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, selected radical cleric Ayatollah Alireza Arafi to its interim leadership council on Saturday.
Ben Sabti, an Iran expert at the Institute of National Security Studies in Israel, said, "His name was brought up in the last two or three years. He is not a kind of politician but is part of exporting the revolution from the propaganda side." A foundational pillar of the birth of the 1979 Islamic Republic was to export its violent Shiite ideology and foster radical Islamist revolutions across the globe.
"He's been marinating in Khomeinist ideology his entire career. Khomeinism is a threat to U.S. interests," Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital.
The founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's "Death to America" pledge is a core feature of Khomeinism, according to experts.
According to a UANI report, Arafi has long been agitating against the U.S. and Israel. "America will take its wish for Iran to abandon production of military hardware to the grave," he is quoted as saying, and in a 2019 Friday prayer sermon he announced, "We will stay with our imam and leader to the end, when we humiliate [global] arrogance. Together with the Sayyed of the resistance, we say: Oh great leader of the world of Islam, we will be with you until the end, when the arrogant people in the world are defeated, and Israel is erased."
Brodsky continued, "The fact that Iran’s system elevated Alireza Arafi to membership on the interim leadership council is a signal that he could be a leading candidate to replace Ali Khamenei as supreme leader.
Arafi is also being watched in Washington. In an interview with Fox News Digital on Sunday, Rep. Brian Mast, R-Fla., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described Arafi as ""a very hard-line cleric."
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