Raisi death reshapes Iran succession, puts focus on Khamenei son
Ebrahim Raisi, seen as a possible successor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has reshuffled the cards in the succession process and increased the spotlight on the Iranian number one's son Mojtaba as a contender.
While analysts emphasise it is impossible to know for sure the intentions of Iran's leadership, Raisi's record as a pillar of the Islamic republic over several decades made him an inevitable candidate to become its third supreme leader after Khamenei and revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
The supreme leader serves for life after being appointed by the Assembly of Experts body and has the final say on all key matters including foreign policy. Khamenei, 85, has held the post since Khomeini's death in 1989.
Ali Fathollah-Nejad, director of the Berlin-based think tank Center for Middle East and Global Order, said it is «very hard to tell» if Raisi was seen as a successor but noted that Khamenei had «catapulted his longtime confidant into major positions».
These included head of the judiciary and the presidency, indicating «a desire to provide him with the kind of profile that would facilitate his ascendancy to the supreme leadership», he told AFP.
«In Iran's opaque political environment, none but a handful at the top know how likely Raisi was to become the next supreme leader,» added analysts Ali Vaez and Naysan Rafati of the International Crisis Group in a study.
«But if he was to get the job, his death puts a big question
