After the assassination of Ali Larijani, the powerful secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, questions have emerged over who will lead the country.Larijani was one of the government’s most prominent faces, who had stepped into the spotlight after the assassination of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other top military and political figures by Israel and the US, which began attacking Iran on February 28.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of listMojtaba Khamenei has been announced as his father’s successor as supreme leader. But US officials claim that he is wounded, and analysts say he has never held an executive role. That has left observers wondering what the chain of command looks like in Tehran, and who the most powerful figures in the country are.Influential figuresFor now, analysts said it wasn’t completely clear who would succeed Larijani. Historian Reza H Akbari, who is also an analyst on Iran at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, said that while there are mechanisms and constitutional processes in place, specific names might be harder to guess.The number of assassinations also could lead to lesser-known entities assuming powerful positions, or even less transparency, analysts said.“It might be in Iran’s interest not to name a successor to Larijani, since that would just be putting a target on his back,” Barbara Slavin, a distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, told Al Jazeera.However, she said there were a number of figures who “remain influential in both the political and military realms”. Advertisement Among the names Slavin said could play important roles are Mohammad Bagher …
