The death of Iran’s president will spark a high-stakes power struggle
Three years ago, when Ebrahim Raisi won the presidency in a rigged election, some Iranians thought it was a stepping stone to a bigger position. Ali Khamenei, the ageing, ailing supreme leader, did not have long to live; when he died, Mr Raisi would surely aim to replace him. But history has a sense of irony.
Instead of catapulting him to the top job, winning the presidency cost Mr Raisi his life. On May 19th he was returning from a visit to neighbouring Azerbaijan, where he inaugurated a dam on the border. Authorities lost contact with his helicopter in a mountainous region about 86km (54 miles) north-east of Tabriz (see map).
At first they insisted there was no cause for alarm: the president’s helicopter had made a “hard landing", although, confusingly, several Iranian news agencies reported that he travelled onwards to Tabriz by car. Within hours, though, those reports had been deleted, and state television began to broadcast prayers for the president. On the morning of May 20th, state media confirmed that Mr Raisi was dead, along with the foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdollahian, who was travelling in the same helicopter.
In many ways, Mr Raisi has been a figurehead: the president is subordinate to the supreme leader. But his death will nonetheless shake Iranian politics. It will force the regime to find a new president in short order at a difficult time: it is engaged in a regional war that encompasses direct military action by Iran and by its network of regional proxies.
Iran’s adversaries, including America, Israel and Saudi Arabia, are considering deepening their security links in order to counter Iran. The economy is sinking and could be hit further by tightening American sanctions. And Mr Raisi’s death could
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