Key Figures and Leaders

The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran is based on the concept of velayat-e faqih (Guardianship of the Islamic Jurist), which grants a learned Islamic jurist (faqih) – a cleric tasked with interpretation of sharia (divine Islamic law) – with the role of Supreme Leader.

Ebrahim Raisi ascended steadily through the ranks of the Islamic Republic of Iran until his unexpected death in May of 2024. Spending most of his career in the judiciary, three factors can explain Raisi’s rise: promotion by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, an influential family network, and a knack for leveraging state positions to feed his ambition. Raisi spent his career developing his image as an anti-corruption crusader—a selective crusade which did not target his close allies. In recent years, Raisi emerged as a leading candidate to succeed the 84-year-old Khamenei, but this speculation was cut short by his untimely death.

The appointment of Ali Akbar Ahmadian as the new secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) signals more continuity than change in the Iranian establishment. He replaces Ali Shamkhani, his former boss, who held the post for around a decade as the second-longest serving SNSC secretary since 1979.

In August 2021, the Islamic Consultative Assembly ratified President Ebrahim Raisi’s selection for Minister of Intelligence and Security, Esmail Khatib, a mid-ranking cleric who has attained the title of Hojjat ol-Eslam, which means “proof of Islam.”

Hassan Rouhani has emerged victorious with 57% of the vote in the May 2017 Iranian election, defeating his primary hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi and the five other candidates permitted to run out of over 1600 applicants. Western media accounts of the Iranian election (See here, here, here, here, here, here and here for a small sampling) incorrectly sought to portray Rouhani as a “moderate” or “reformist,” and erroneously concluded that his reelection would be a harbinger of domestic social reforms and a more conciliatory approach to foreign policy. Characterizations of Rouhani’s “moderation” ignored the reality of Rouhani’s true nature as a loyal servant of Iran’s Islamic Revolution who is dedicated to the preservation of its repressive, theocratic regime.