Page 13 - Iran Program News Today

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi death in helicopter crash upsets the plans of hardliners who wanted him to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Outside of clerical circles in Iran, the name of Alireza Arafi is hardly well known, but he deserves more attention. His entire career has been shaped by appointments given to him by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In fact, Arafi may even be a candidate to succeed Khamenei when the day comes.

The helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and his foreign minister crashed on Sunday as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog. We talk to Alex Vatanka, the founding Director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute. Volodymyr Zelenskyy marks five years in power as Ukraine's president. We talk to Sergey Sanovich, a Hoover Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. And the first U.S. Black astronaut candidate from the 1960s flew on the Blue Origin spac...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisis death in a helicopter crash upsets the plans of hardliners who wanted him to succeed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and will stir rivalries in their camp... -May 20, 2024 at 10:28 am EDT - MarketScreener

Middle East News: Iran proclaimed five days of mourning for President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday, though the muted atmosphere revealed little of the spectacular public gri.

Raisis views echoed Khameneis on every major topic and he enacted the leaders policies aimed at entrenching clerical power

This month marks the 45th anniversary of the founding of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Mohsen Sazegara, a non-resident scholar with MEI’s Iran Program, was one of the group’s founders and a member of its first board of commanders. He later became a journalist and a reformist political activist. He was arrested and imprisoned four times before ultimately leaving Iran. He was interviewed by MEI in early May.

This episode will take us to the city of Birjand, which is famous as the city of science.

Analysis: The visit came amid the backdrop of mounting regional tensions and several months after Pakistan and Iran launched strikes on each other's territory.

More than six months in, the war in Gaza seems to have no end in sight, even as conditions on the ground for Palestinian civilians have grown catastrophic. Tensions have steadily risen all across the region since Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following Hamas’ horrific Oct. 7 attack. The Israel Defense Forces and Hezbollah exchange fire along the Israeli-Lebanese border on a near-daily basis, killing dozens of civilians and raising fears that a northern front could open at any time.