After Ali Khamenei, What's Next in Iran?

Source: thedispatch.com
Author: Charlotte Lawson

TEL AVIV, Israel -- The May 19 death of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi brought renewed attention to Iran's looming succession crisis. After more than three decades of consolidating his own power as Iran's final decision-maker, 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may have laid the groundwork for regime infighting and popular unrest in the event of his death.

Raisi's death in a helicopter crash earlier this month left Iran without its top contender to replace Khamenei. A hardline cleric with experience heading the judiciary before claiming the presidency in 2021, Raisi was also "considered a loyal lieutenant to Iran's supreme leader," Jason Brodsky, the policy director for the think tank United Against Nuclear Iran, told The Dispatch. "And no other person in the Islamic Republic's political elite has been able to claim they presided over two branches of government like Raisi has, so that is a loss for the system."