Ebrahim Raisi, who assumes Iran’s presidency on 5 August after the country’s June 2021 election, has set his eyes on further empowering the terrorist designated IRGC organization with key ministerial and bureaucratic positions likely to be awarded to guardsmen under his new government.
The Iranian president is presently the subject of US sanctions for human rights abuses including a brutal crackdown on Iran’s Green Movement protests in 2009 and mass execution of political activists.
Raisi’s election as president was a de facto appointment by Khamenei. The presidency is the perfect internship for the supreme leadership – a path Khamenei also followed before assuming the role.
This is why expanding the IRGC’s power is in Raisi’s interest: Critically for Khamenei and his successor, the terrorist designated IRGC will play a vital role in smoothing the transition to the next supreme leader. In short, the Guard can be the kingmaker.
The aging ayatollah is in the process of securing the foundations of a post-Khamenei Islamic Republic to ensure the survival of his hard-line Islamist regime after his death.
The supreme leader has been laying the ground for his successor, who, according to all signs so far, will be his former student, the 60-year-old hard-line cleric Raisi.
Human rights lawyer Geoffrey Robertson, who wrote a groundbreaking report on the 1988 Iranian prison massacres, has predicted Mr. Raisi will be a stay-at-home President of Iran because of the threat of arrest and prosecution owing to his role in the killings.
“We now have an international criminal as president of the state of Iran,” Mr. Robertson said after Mr. Raisi’s election victory.
“If he ever ventures out of Iran, any democratic country would be entitled under universal jurisdiction to arrest him and put him on trial.”
Mr. Raisi is expected to resume talks on the 2015 nuclear deal but has previously said he will not meet US president Joe Biden.
Source: Institute for Global Change
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