Abbas Ali Soleimani was one of the 88 members of the Assembly of Experts responsible for appointing the supreme leader, the country’s highest authority.
The agency said, quoting an official, that Soleimani was “assassinated on Wednesday morning in an armed attack” in the town of Babolsar, located on the Caspian Sea, 230 km north of Tehran, pointing out that “the attacker was arrested by the security forces,” according to AFP.
Soleimani served as the representative of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and the imam of Friday prayers in Kashan, a city in the center of the country between Tehran and Isfahan, and in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchestan.
The Assembly of Experts, of which he was a member, is a body of 88 clerics who are elected for a term of 8 years by direct universal suffrage, from a group of candidates approved by the Guardian Council..
He is responsible for appointing the Supreme Leader and supervising his work, and he has the constitutional right to dismiss him and appoint a new person if he deems it necessary.
#Assassination #member #council #responsible #appointing #Iranian #guide