Tehran, July 30 (Reuters): The conservative head of an Iranian clerical body which has the power to appoint and even dismiss the country’s supreme leader died today after an illness, Iranian media said.

Ayatollah Ali Meshkini headed the 86-member Assembly of Experts, an elected body of senior Shia theologians which chooses Iran’s supreme leader and supervises his work. The official Irna news agency said Meshkini, who was 86, had suffered from lung disease. The Assembly will pick its new head at its next regular meeting to be held in the Iranian month which starts in late August, the Mehr News Agency said. Meshkini was repeatedly re-elected to the post each year. The Assembly appointed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader in 1989, following the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.