Raisi’s Death Doesn’t Change Iranian Policy, but Will Spark Fight for Power

Winfield Myers

Iran confirmed Monday morning that President Ebrahim Raisi, as well as Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were dead following a helicopter crash the previous day.

Though the deaths of two senior Iranian officials are a dramatic development at a time when multiple conflicts are raging in the region, it likely will not affect the course of those fights significantly, with decisions over foreign policy and war under the purview of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

“The president of the Islamic Republic is an implementer, not a decision-maker,” explained Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran. “So the policies of the Islamic Republic, the fundamentals of those policies, will remain the same.”

Read the full article at the Times of Israel.

Lazar Berman is the Times of Israel‘s diplomatic reporter and a Milstein Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

Lazar Berman is the diplomatic correspondent at the Times of Israel, where he also covers Christian Affairs. He holds an M.A. in Security Studies from Georgetown University and taught at Salahuddin University in Iraqi Kurdistan. Berman is a reserve captain in the IDF’s Commando Brigade and served in a Bedouin unit during his active service.
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I recently witnessed something I haven’t seen in a long time. On Friday, August 16, 2024, a group of pro-Hamas activists packed up their signs and went home in the face of spirited and non-violent opposition from a coalition of pro-American Iranians and American Jews. The last time I saw anything like that happen was in 2006 or 2007, when I led a crowd of Israel supporters in chants in order to silence a heckler standing on the sidewalk near the town common in Amherst, Massachusetts. The ridicule was enough to prompt him and his fellow anti-Israel activists to walk away, as we cheered their departure. It was glorious.