Firebrand anti-American cleric Alireza Arafi seen as contender to replace Iran’s Khamenei

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. . . . “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. According to a UANI report, Arafi has long been agitating against the U.S. and Israel. . . . 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.”