DUBAI: Iran has selected a 66-year-old cleric to join the three-member leadership council that will govern the country until a new supreme leader is selected.

Ayatollah Ali Reza Arafi has been a member of both constitutional watchdog Guardian Council and the Assembly of Experts that will choose the next leader.

He was hand picked by late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a member of the Guardian Council in 2019.

Arafi joins President Masoud Pezeshkian and head of judiciary cleric Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei on the council.