In late March 1989, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri—previously named as Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s successor—was dismissed/removed from the line of succession. This sudden break created an urgent leadership problem inside the Islamic Republic just as Khomeini’s health was failing.
Khomeini directed that a committee be formed to revise Iran’s constitution, giving it a short deadline and signaling that major institutional changes were coming. The planned revisions aimed to reduce internal power struggles and address the rules for the next supreme leader and the structure of the executive branch.
Ayatollah Khomeini died on June 3, 1989, ending the leadership of the central figure of the 1979 revolution and the Islamic Republic’s first decade. His death triggered an immediate succession process and intensified the need to finalize constitutional changes already under discussion.
On June 4, 1989, Iran’s Assembly of Experts selected then-President Ali Khamenei as the new supreme leader. Because the constitution’s leadership criteria were under pressure and debate, the selection was closely linked to the planned constitutional amendments that would soon be put to a referendum.
On July 28, 1989, voters approved amendments to Iran’s constitution in a national referendum held alongside the presidential election. Key changes included abolishing the prime minister’s post, revising leadership qualifications (removing the requirement that the leader be a marjaʿ, a top-ranking source of emulation), and creating the Supreme National Security Council.
Also on July 28, 1989, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani won Iran’s presidential election by a large margin. The election helped set up a new political balance: a newly chosen supreme leader above, and a strengthened presidency below, with the prime ministership on the way out.
The amended constitution revised Article 109 to remove the requirement that the supreme leader be a marjaʿ, and strengthened the Assembly of Experts’ authority in Article 111 regarding leadership qualifications. These changes made Khamenei’s leadership legally sustainable after his selection and reshaped the formal rules for future successions.
The 1989 amendments established the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), a body designed to coordinate key national security decisions. Over time, this structure helped centralize security policy planning by bringing senior political, military, and security officials into a regular decision-making forum under the broader authority of the supreme leader.
With the 1989 amendments taking effect, the office of prime minister was removed and executive functions were consolidated under the president. This changed how Iran’s government operated by reducing a major internal rival center in the executive branch and clarifying that the president (under the supreme leader) would lead the cabinet and administration.
In early August 1989, Rafsanjani was formally sworn in, beginning a presidency with expanded executive authority compared with earlier years. The ceremony underscored the handoff from Khamenei’s prior role as president to his new position as supreme leader, separating the top religious-political office from day-to-day government administration.
By late 1989, Iran’s top offices settled into a new arrangement: Khamenei as supreme leader and Rafsanjani as a more powerful president, with the prime ministership gone. This pairing helped stabilize the immediate post-Khomeini transition and provided a clearer chain of authority for rebuilding and policy decisions after the Iran–Iraq War.
By 1990, the leadership transition and constitutional changes had become the new baseline for the Islamic Republic’s governance: a supreme leader selected by the Assembly of Experts under revised qualifications, a consolidated presidency, and new security institutions. This framework shaped how power was organized in the decades that followed, and it defined the rules under which later succession debates would occur.
Death of Ayatollah Khomeini and the 1989 Succession and Constitutional Amendments (1989–1990)