After Raisi’s death, Iran wrestles with two succession challenges

livemint.com:

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s death has dealt an unsettling blow to the country’s politics and raises questions regarding the succession of not just the presidency, but also the most powerful position in the country—that of supreme leader. Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash over the weekend along with Iran’s foreign minister, was widely seen as a potential successor to the current top figure, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 85 and has a history of illness. There is no publicly anointed heir-apparent.

Under Iran’s constitution, new national elections are to be held within 50 days to elect a new president. The vote would come as Iran’s leaders are embroiled in a regional conflict with Israel and facing unrest at home as economic woes intensify discontent with clerical rule. Khamenei on Sunday sought to play down the possibility of upheaval.

“The nation doesn’t need to be worried or anxious, as the administration of the country will not be disrupted," he wrote on X. Raisi’s death has heightened speculation about possible candidates for the nation’s two top jobs. Among the people viewed as contenders are Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei, 54, and Alireza Arafi, 67, a member of the Assembly of Experts, the group responsible for selecting a new supreme leader.

The ascendance of Mojtaba would go against the views of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, who likened dynastic rule to the illegitimate monarchy he had helped topple in the 1979 revolution. Khamenei himself last year said a hereditary government was un-Islamic. The Iranian leadership never discusses potential successors in public, leaving the question of who will run the country after Khamenei dies a matter of intense speculation.