Iran President Ebrahim Raisi's death is a blow to Iran amid ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict. 63 year old Raisi (1960-2024), who confronted the West, was killed in deadly helicopter crash near Azerbaijan border. Crash caused by sudden weather change, resulting in hard landing. The ill-fated US-made Bell 212 chopper carrying Raisi and other top officials, was en route to the city of Tabriz, following the inauguration of dams near the Iran-Azerbaijan border.
Raisi's death leaves Iran without key leadership at crucial moment for Middle East. The news of Raisi’s death comes as Iran struggles with internal dissent and its relations with the wider world, particularly the West.
Prosecutor to President:
Ebrahim Raisi, an ultraconservative cleric whose tenure as Iran’s President was marked by a mass uprising and an increasingly hawkish stance toward the West was first served as a state prosecutor in 1988. That was the most controversial year in Raisi's life. That year, along with his fellow judges, he carried out executions of political prisoners. As a result, about 5000 prisoner were hanged. After the executions, Raisi was dubbed the "Butcher of Tehran". In protest of this inhuman verdict, human rights groups protested against the Raisi when he was ran for president post.
Ebrahim Raisi is a close associate of the current supreme leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khomeini and also nearest follower of former president Ruhollah Khomeini. With the help of these two supreme leaders, Raisi started his career as a religious preacher and rose to the position of Country's President. Raisi was not a reformist, was a hardcore orthodox. He began his life as a priest. Then he rises to President Post.
Raisi was highlighted when he addressed in the United Nations after kissing Quran in front of world leaders. Even after electing as the President, he acted as a religious preacher of the Country. This was the main criticism against him.
Big blow to the Iran amid Israel-Hamas conflict:
Amid Israel-Hamas conflict, Ebrahim Raisi's death is a blow to Iran. For the first time in its history, Tehran launched a drone attack on Israel. Country also been moved forward on the nuclear program. And Iran is getting closer to the Russia and China. It is moving forward with the resolve to build a strong alliance against the US. It has been playing a big brother role on behalf of the Muslim Countries in the Israel and Hamas conflict, and supporting to the Palestinians.
No Role of President, only Power of Obedience:
Of course, the President has a limited role in Iran. He doesn’t have much power. The final decision maker is Khomeini. Meanwhile, Raisi was obedient to the supreme leader and obeyed his orders. There have been times before when presidents have made independent decisions. But, Raisi never uttered a word of supreme leader Khomeini. In this scenario, the political instability in Iran is likely to continue until a pro-Khamenei candidate is re-elected to power.
Raisi is the first person, who was strongly opposed Iran's 2015 nuclear deal with the United States. In this back ground, he ran for president post in the 2017 election. But the reform-minded Hassan Rouhani won. However, Raisi continued to hold key positions with the support of Khomeini. He was succeeded in getting the strong support from the extremist group in the country. Strategically he won the presidential election in 2021. Not only that, many of Iranians had hoped that Raisi would also take over as Supreme Leader as Khomeini's successor in the future.
However, Raisi has not made a mark on governance since his election as president. Simply, he followed Khomeini's orders. In 2022 Raisi governance faced opposition from the public. Massa Amini, a young woman who did not wear a hijab, was attacked and killed by Iran's moral police. In outrage of protests, nearly 500 innocent public were killed in the riots. More than 22,000 people were put in the prisons.
The death of Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash was tragic. Many questions have arisen over the crash and his death.
