Selection of a supreme leader in a day or two: Iran Foreign Minister tells Al Jazeera
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has told Al Jazeera that “you may see the selection of a supreme leader in a day or two,” as the country begins a constitutional process following the killing of its leader.
In an exclusive interview, Araghchi said, “Today the transition council is established and that is (composed) of the president, the head of the judiciary and one of the jurists of the Guardian Council. This group of three will act as in charge of the leaders before a new leader is elected. And then the process of election of the new leader by the Assembly of Experts, I assume that it takes a short period of time. Maybe in one or two days they will elect a new leader for the country. So everything is in order and everything is in line with our legal system and in line with the constitution.”
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Araghchi stressed that Iran is not targeting its neighbours in the Persian Gulf. “We are not attacking our brothers in the Persian Gulf, we are not attacking our neighbours, but we are attacking American targets,” he said.
He added, “We have no problem with the countries in the other side of the Persian Gulf, we have friendly relations and good neighbourly relations with all of them and we are determined to continue to these relations.”
The foreign minister described the killing of the supreme leader as “a very serious and unprecedented act and a blatant violation of international law.”
He warned, “The killing of the supreme leader will make the confrontation more complex and dangerous.”
Araghchi said Iran has “begun a constitutional process, and the Transitional Council was established today and will work to manage affairs.”
He declared, “We have no restrictions or limits in defending ourselves.”
He clarified that Iran has no intention of closing the Strait of Hormuz at present, nor any plans to do “anything that would disrupt navigation in it at this stage.”
“What we are doing is in fact an act of self-defence and retaliation to the American aggression against us,” Araghchi said.
He added that state institutions in Iran are functioning and the country “has constitutional procedures in place.”
Araghchi also insisted that “Iran has always been open to diplomacy, unlike America, which attacked us for the second time during negotiations.”
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