Dubai:

Iran started on Thursday registration of candidates for an early election next month following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi told state TV.

Once seen as a possible successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ageing ultimate decision-maker, Raisi’s sudden death has triggered a race among hardliners to influence the selection of Iran’s next leader.

After the five-day registration period, the Guardian Council, which oversees elections and legislation, will vet the candidates running for the presidency.

“The vetting process will be seven days and then qualified candidates will have almost two weeks for the election campaign,” Vahidi told state TV. The Guardian Council will publish the list of qualified candidates on June 11.

Moderate politicians have accused the 12-member hardline Guardian Council of disqualifying rivals to hardline candidates, who are expected to dominate the upcoming presidential race.

Turnout may be hit by restricted choice on the ballot and rising discontent over an array of political, social and economic crises.

Within Iran’s complex mix of clerical rulers and elected officials, Khamenei has the final say on all state matters such as nuclear and foreign policies. But the elected president will be in charge of tackling worsening economic hardship.

The registration of candidates could include Parviz Fattah, a former Guards member who heads an investment fund linked to the leader, and Saeed Jalili, a former chief nuclear negotiator who in 2001 ran Khamenei’s office for four years, insiders said.

Interim President Mohammad Mokhber and former parliament speaker and a Khamenei adviser, Ali Larijani, have also been mentioned in Iranian media as possible candidates. Larijani was barred from standing in the 2021 presidential race.

Several low-key moderate politicians are likely to enter the race.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

The story so far: The death of Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s President, and eight others, including Foreign Minister Amir Abdollahian, in a helicopter crash on May 19, has sent shockwaves across the region. The timing of the accident was significant. Tensions remain high in West Asia, particularly after Iran launched its first direct attack on Israel in April. The war in Gaza rages on with Iran backing Hamas and other anti-Israel non-state militants in the region. At home, the regime has seen growing protests in recent years. And now, Iran has to elect a new President amid this uncertainty.

How important was Raisi?

In Iran’s semi-representative theocratic system, the role of the elected president is limited compared to that of the Supreme Leader, who is appointed by a clerical body. The President’s primary responsibility is to run the day-to-day affairs of the government, while critical policies and long-term strategies are set by the Supreme Leader (read ‘the establishment’). But the President and his government have a say on how to implement these policies.

In the past, Iran has seen friction between the establishment and the Presidents as they tried to champion their agenda. But in Raisi, who was elected President in 2021, the establishment found a staunch ally who hardly strayed from the line set by the Supreme Leader. Raisi oversaw a marked shift from the Hassan Rouhani years when Iran pursued dialogue with the West and reached a nuclear deal in 2015 (which was sabotaged by the U.S. in 2018). During Raisi’s tenure, Iran sought closer strategic and economic cooperation with Russia and China, doubled down on its support for the so-called ‘axis of resistance’ (non-state actors such as Hamas, Houthis and Hezbollah) and expanded the country’s nuclear programme. Tehran also adopted a more aggressive policy towards Israel, which saw the April 14 drone and missile attack.

Will his death alter Iran’s policies?

The President’s death is unlikely to bring in any serious change to Iran’s foreign policy. But it is highly likely that the regime’s focus would shift to the transition at home. Even before Raisi’s death was formally announced, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Iranians that governance would not be disrupted. The message from the Supreme Leader is that the system reigns supreme, not individuals, and the status quo prevails. Iran has lost several high profile officials in recent years, from Qassem Soleimani, the charismatic Quds Force General, to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the country’s top nuclear scientist. But the loss of key figures does not affect the national project.

However, Raisi’s death poses two succession challenges to Iran’s leaders. One, it has to quickly elect the next President. The second challenge is to identify a potential successor to Mr. Khamenei. In the past, different influential clerics were seen as his prospective successors, such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. Rafsanjani died in 2017 and Shahroudi in 2018. In recent years, Raisi, a hardline cleric, an elected President and a former judicial chief, was seen as a potential successor. His death leaves a huge void in the corridors of power in Tehran.

What does Raisi’s death mean for India?

India has built a good relationship with Iran since the revolution of 1979. Even though trade ties have taken a beating in recent years, owing to American sanctions on Iran, both sides stayed invested in the overall bilateral partnership. One good example of this partnership is the Chabahar port project where India has made investments worth millions. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had attended Raisi’s inauguration in August 2021. In January, Mr. Jaishankar travelled again to Tehran to meet its leaders at a time when Houthis, the Iran-backed Yemeni Shia militants, were carrying out attacks against vessels in the Red Sea. India had refused to join a U.S.-led coalition to attack the Houthis.

Earlier this month, India signed a long-term agreement to further develop and operate one of the two terminals of the Chabahar port, formalising a deal that has been in the works for years. On May 20, a day after the accident, Mr. Jaishankar said India and Iran reached the Chabahar agreement “because of the interest and initiative” of President Raisi and Foreign Minister Abdollahian. India was careful not to take a direct position in the West Asian crisis. When tensions broke out between Iran and Israel, India expressed deep concerns but stopped short of condemning any party. The fact that India sent Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar to Tehran to offer condolences shows that retaining the current momentum in ties remains a priority for New Delhi.

An Iranian woman holds a poster of President Ebrahim Raisi during a mourning ceremony for him at Vali-e-Asr square in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, May 20, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Ebrahim Raisi, the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a hardline cleric who many saw as a successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, died in a helicopter crash in the mountainous northwest reaches of Iran near the Azerbaijan border on May 19.

His death, along with those of Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and a few other officials, comes after Tehran launched a sizeable missile and drone attack on Israeli territory in April that was in retaliation of an Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders.

Also Read: Iran helicopter crash LIVE Updates

A man whose lineage could be traced back to the Prophet Muhammed, Mr. Raisi rose through the ranks of Iran’s Shi’ite Muslim clergy and claimed key positions in the country’s judiciary before winning the 2021 Presidential election, which helped consolidate all power under the conservatives loyal to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Mr. Raisi’s 85-year-old mentor.

Mr. Raisi’s time as President was marked by with escalating regional tensions within the Middle East, stalled talks on the revival of a nuclear deal with world powers and the anti-government protests that swept across Iran in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini.

Many Iranians and human rights activists have called for an investigation into his alleged role in the mass executions of political prisoners in 1988 as a part of the four-man “Death Commissions.”

Here is a brief look at the life of Ebrahim Raisi:

Ebrahim Raisi, like Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wore a black turban, which means he traced his lineage back to the Prophet Mohammed. Before being elected President in November 2021, he was the chief of Iran’s judiciary. A close ally of Mr. Khamenei, Raisi, after his controversial election victory, helped the conservatives tighten their grip on Iran’s state and society, after an eight-year period of Hassan Rouhani, the architect of Iran’s failed nuclear deal with world powers. As President, Mr. Raisi tightened crackdown at home, strengthened Iran’s ties with Russia and China and adopted a much more muscular foreign policy, which saw Tehran launching an unprecedented missile and drone attack towards Israel in April. He was seen as a potential successor to Mr. Khamenei, the most powerful man in the Islamic Republic. But such predictions did not last long.

On May 19, President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and a few other officials were killed in a helicopter crash in the Varzaghan region of East Azerbaijan province.

Raisi’s 2017 electoral defeat did not deter him

Raisi’s rise to the top echelons of the Islamic Republic was gradual. He contested the 2017 Presidential election, with backing from the clergy, but lost to Mr. Rouhani, who then secured a second term. But the electoral defeat did not deter Raisi. In 2019, he was appointed the Chief Justice. In the same year, he was named deputy chief of the 88-member Assembly of Experts, the clerical body that will pick the next Supreme Leader when Ayatollah Ali Khamenei departs.

In the 2021 Presidential election, there were complaints that the establishment was clearly favouring Raisi. Mr. Rouhani, a popular figure among the reformists and moderates, was constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term. Other prominent moderate candidates, former Parliament speaker Ali Larijani and outgoing Vice-President Eshaq Jahangiri, were excluded from running by the Guardian Council. The 12-member Council, which vets potential candidates, allowed only seven contestants — two low-key moderates and five hardliners — to run. Raisi was the only prominent figure on the list. Closer to the election, two more candidates dropped out, boosting Raisi’s chances. There were no surprises when the results were announced.

Born in 1960 in a village near the holy city of Mashhad, Raisi, as a teenager, studied in a Qom seminary. When Iran erupted against the rule of the Shah in the late 1970s, Raisi, like many other seminary students, liberals and leftwing activists, joined the revolution. After the Pahlavi dynasty was overthrown and Iran became an Islamic Republic, Raisi began his judicial career as a prosecutor in the city of Karaj. He moved to the capital in 1985 after he was appointed a deputy prosecutor of Tehran. It was this time Raisi got the attention of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

Raisi was a member of ‘death commission,’ set up to carry out executions

After the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88, Khomeini issued secret decrees condemning thousands of political prisoners (mostly members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran, a dissident group backed by Saddam Hussein that carried out attacks after Iran accepted a ceasefire, and supporters of leftist factions such as the Fedaian and the Tudeh Party) to death. Then a four-man commission, which is widely known as the “death commission”, was set up to carry out the executions. Raisi was reported to be a member of the commission. A 2019 U.S. Treasury Department release, which imposed sanctions on top Iranian officials, including Raisi, “for advancing domestic and foreign oppression”, states that “as deputy prosecutor general of Tehran, Raisi participated in a so-called ‘death commission’ that ordered the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.” According to rights groups, including Amnesty International which released a report on the killings in 1990, thousands were killed after sham trials. Iran has never acknowledged the killings. Raisi never talked about it publicly, even during his Presidential campaigns.

Raisi held important positions in Iran’s judicial system

Always a loyal ally of the establishment, Raisi held several important positions in Iran’s judicial system. From 2004 to 2014, he was the First Deputy Chief Justice. In 2014, he was named the Attorney-General of Iran, a position which he held until 2016. Then Mr. Khamenei appointed him to run the Astan-e Quds-e Razavi (Imam Reza charity foundation), which manages a wide network of businesses and endowments. These foundations, run largely on donations or assets seized during the 1979 revolution worth billions, operate directly under the Supreme Leader. When he was appointed to the foundation, Mr. Khamenei called Raisi a “trustworthy person with high-profile experience”, a rare praise from the Supreme Leader that fuelled speculations that the Ayatollah could be grooming him as a potential successor.

Raisi’s answer to Iran’s myriad problems was ‘maximum resistance’

Raisi assumed Presidency at a critical juncture for Iran. The country’s economy, battered by sanctions, was facing serious challenges. The nuclear deal, which promised removal of sanctions and economic prosperity, had fallen apart. Large-scale protests broke out across the country after Mahsa Amini, 22, died after she was arrested for not following the country’s strict hijab rules. Raisi backed a crackdown on the protests instead of caving in to pressure. Diplomacy took a backseat during his tenure as Iran stepped up its nuclear programme, started shipping weapons to Russia, and doubled down on its support for non-state militias across West Asia such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Shia Mobilisation Units. Maximum resistance was Raisi’s answer to the myriad problems Iran was facing. And in Iran’s clergy-dominated complex power theatre where traditionalists and moderates compete for power and influence, Raisi emerged as a strong President who has the backing of the clerical establishment.

Raisi’s death will cause vacuum in Iran’s politics

Raisi’s death will leave a vacuum in Iran’s religious-politico system. In recent years, Iran, unlike any other country, has lost several high profile figures. In January 2020, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a charismatic military commander, was assassinated by the U.S. in Baghdad in an air strike. In November that year, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in the outskirts of Tehran, reportedly by Israel. After the Hamas-Israel war began on October 7, 2023, Iran lost several senior military leaders, including Mohammed Reza Zahedi, who was in charge of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ operations in Syria and Lebanon. These losses pale in comparison with the death of the President and the Foreign Minister. This is the first time the Islamic Republic is losing a President, sitting or former, to such an accident.

While details are yet to emerge about the crash, the existing geopolitical tensions could fuel speculations about the accident. Iran has to quickly ascertain the reasons behind the crash, and put in place an orderly transition, which involves an election within weeks, so that the country’s normal operations would not be affected by the President’s death.

Rescuers in Iran were racing on Sunday to find the crash site of a helicopter that was carrying President Ebrahim Raisi to find out the fate of all those on board. Below is brief outline of what Iran’s constitution says happens if a president is incapacitated or dies in office:

* According to article 131 of the Islamic Republic’s constitution, if a president dies in office the first vice president takes over, with the confirmation of the supreme leader, who has the final say in all matters of state.

* A council consisting of the first vice president, the speaker of parliament and the head of the judiciary must arrange a election for a new president within a maximum period of 50 days.

Raisi was elected president in 2021 and, under the current timetable, presidential elections are due to take place in 2025.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad:

Pakistan and Iran on Monday agreed on joint efforts to eradicate terrorism as Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held talks with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and discussed ways to promote bilateral ties at political, economic, trade and cultural levels, months after the two neighbours carried out tit-for-tat air strikes against alleged terrorist hideouts on rival lands.

Ebrahim Raisi, the first head of state of any country to visit Pakistan after the February 8 general elections, was welcomed by Shehbaz Sharif at the Prime Minister House where the Iranian leader inspected the Guard of Honour.

During their talks, President Raisi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif agreed on joint efforts to eradicate terrorism, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.

The two leaders also held discussions to increase trade and communication links between their countries, it added.

In the presence of Ebrahim Raisi and Shehbaz Sharif, the Iranian and Pakistani officials signed eight documents for promoting cooperation in various fields.

Addressing a joint press conference, President Raisi said that Iran and Pakistan have decided to increase the trade volume to USD 10 billion.

“We are committed to strengthening relations at the highest levels. The Economic and trade volume between Iran and Pakistan is not acceptable. We have decided as a first step to increase trade volume between our two countries to $10bn,” Ebrahim Raisi said.

In his remarks, Shehbaz Sharif said the entire Pakistani nation welcomes the visit of the Iranian President as he called for strengthening Pak-Iran ties despite challenges. “We have to keep this relationship strong despite the challenges we both face,” he said.

Shehbaz Sharif said he had detailed discussions with President Raisi on “religious, cultural, diplomatic, investment, and security matters” during their meeting.

He described Ebrahim Raisi as an “ocean of political intelligence and wisdom”, and said Iran would progress further under his leadership.

“Pakistan and Iran can prosper and our borders can see progress,” Shehbaz Sharif said, expressing hope that the shared border can adapt for trade and business.

He expressed hope for the relationship between the neighbours to be “firm and stable”, noting that today was an opportunity to “make this friendship a happy and prosperous one”.

During the joint press conference, Shehbaz Sharif raked up the Kashmir issue and thanked Iran for its stance. However, President Ebrahim Raisi refrained from mentioning Kashmir and instead talked about Iran’s support for those fighting against oppression especially in Palestine.

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and President Raisi planted a tree on the lawn of the Prime Minister House as the world marked Earth Day on Monday.

The two countries signed an MoU for establishment of a special economic zone whilst another was signed for film exchanges and cooperation between the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and Organization of Cinema and audio visual affairs of Iran.

The Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis and Ministry of Cooperatives, labours and social welfare of Iran as well as Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority and National Standards Organization of Iran also signed MoUs of cooperation. An MoU was also signed on legal cooperation.

Later, President Raisi and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif unveiled the commemoration of naming one of the main streets of Islamabad after “Iran”.

President Raisi also met his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari and discussed key regional and global developments, particularly the situation in the Middle East.

Separately, Chairman Senate Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani met President Raisi and the two sides agreed to further expand parliamentary exchanges and to promote cultural cooperation and people-to-people ties.

A delegation of Pakistan-Iran Parliamentary Friendship Group led by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq met with President Raisi and the two sides agreed to leverage parliamentary platforms to enrich and strengthen bilateral relations and promote people-to-people cooperation.

Earlier in the day, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar called on the Iranian President in Islamabad, where they discussed bilateral relations as well as regional and global developments, Radio Pakistan reported.

The two leaders “emphasised the importance of enhanced efforts to further consolidate bilateral relations in diverse fields”, it said, adding that they also “affirmed commitment to peace and constructive dialogue for resolving regional challenges”.

Ebrahim Raisi, who arrived in Pakistan on a three-day official visit to promote cooperation, was accorded a warm welcome at the Islamabad Airport and was received by Housing Minister Mian Riaz Hussain Pirzada and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Iran Mudassir Tipu, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on social media platform X.

Ebrahim Raisi, the first Iranian president to visit Pakistan in eight years, is accompanied by his spouse and a high-level delegation comprising the foreign minister and other members of the Cabinet and senior officials.

President Raisi will also visit Lahore and Karachi and meet with the provincial leadership, the Foreign Office said.

Pakistan and Iran enjoy strong bilateral ties anchored in history, culture and religion. This visit provides an important opportunity to further strengthen Pakistan-Iran relations, according to the Foreign Office.

Ebrahim Raisi is visiting Pakistan months after the cordial ties between the two neighbours suffered a setback when Tehran shocked Islamabad by carrying out airstrikes against alleged operative hideouts in the restive Balochistan province in January.

Pakistan swiftly responded by using killer drones and rockets to carry out “precision military strikes” against what it called “terrorist hideouts” in Iran’s Siestan-Balochistan province, killing 9 people.

However, the two sides acted fast to restrain tempers through diplomatic channels. Ebrahim Raisi’s visit is expected to further cement their ties.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)