The death of former Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi is a significant blow to the rule of Velayat al-Faqih, shaking the very foundations of the regime. Following the recent uprisings, particularly the severe unrest in 2022, the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei sought to sustain his regime by purging the government and establishing a youthful, Hezbollahi-led administration.
To achieve this, Khamenei relied on the most loyal individuals within the regime, those who would unquestioningly execute his directives. Raisi was one such loyalist, notorious for his direct involvement in the massacre of thousands of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, a role that earned him the grim nickname “The Butcher of Tehran.” Khamenei had heavily invested in Raisi, even considering him as a potential successor for the position of Supreme Leader.
On May 25, the state-run newspaper, Iran, published an image of the regime’s prosecutors from the years following Khomeini’s death. The newspaper quoted a so-called history researcher who extolled Raisi’s crimes and mass executions, writing:
“In this photo, the 30-year-old gathering of prosecutors, Mr. Rayshahri is giving a speech as the prosecutor general, and the man in a suit sitting on the far left between Mr. (Hossein) Nayeri and (Ali) Younesi is Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi, who in the 80s was responsible for dealing with a number of sensitive and special cases which he had received as a special order from the Imam.”
He further added: “For me, Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi is more than a serving president; he is a razor blade that was not appreciated. When a crisis occurs at any level in the country, some people hide, some prefer to stay out of sight until the storm passes, while others bravely stand in the middle of the square and face the consequences. The summer of 1988 and the incident of the Mojahedin (MEK) under Khomeini’s rule is one of those periods.
“A few years ago, I said in a TV program that we should thank Mr. Raisi and those involved in 1988 as human rights activists. I recite Fatiha for a man who once relieved the system and us from the evil of the Mojahedin based on Sharia duty and Khomeini’s decree.”
From these speeches, it is evident why Raisi was Khamenei’s first choice for president and potentially the regime’s future Supreme Leader, despite the widespread public loathing towards him. Khamenei paid a high price, enduring both domestic and international scandals, to place Raisi in a position of power.
Khamenei has now lost a crucial ally at a time when his efforts in warmongering and the Gaza conflict have not yielded the expected results. Raisi’s death has obliterated all of Khamenei’s investments, even as he maintains that nothing will change within the regime and that events will proceed as they have in the past. However, the regime has become unbalanced and unstable, having suffered a significant and strategic blow.
Moreover, Khamenei could not even execute the recent parliamentary and Assembly of Experts elections as he had hoped, facing the most significant boycott in the history of his regime. The loss of Raisi, his most important asset, compounds this strategic setback.
On June 30, 2021, Mohammad Reza Pour Ebrahimi, the Chairman of the Economic Commission of the parliament, underscored the significance of Raisi’s selection as president for the regime, stating: “The conditions of the country had become so dangerous that if someone like Raisi did not come in, the system would have come to a standstill.”
Finally, Mojtaba Zonnour, the regime’s Deputy Speaker of the parliament, emphasized Raisi’s importance to the regime, saying:
“In the three years that Raisi was president, Khamenei breathed a sigh of relief because the previous concerns, disharmony of forces, fights, conflicts, evasions, and deviations from the correct course did not happen, and the leadership’s concerns decreased; because Raisi was bound by the opinions and orders of the leader.”
Raisi’s demise leaves a vacuum in the regime’s structure, challenging Khamenei’s control and raising questions about the future stability of the Iranian leadership. The reliance on such a polarizing figure underscores the regime’s vulnerability and the precarious balance it strives to maintain amidst internal and external pressures.
Source » irannewsupdate