ICYMI: UANI Leadership Share Expertise Surrounding Implications Of Raisi’s Death In The Spectator And The Telegraph

(New York, NY) – This week, UANI leadership provided expert analysis surrounding the implications of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s sudden deaths on May 19. UANI Policy Director Jason Brodsky published an op-ed, “Raisi’s death has ruined the Ayatollah’s succession plans,” in The Spectator, while UANI CEO Ambassador Mark D. Wallace and UANI Director of Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Research Kasra Aarabi co-authored an op-ed “The West must strike now, and collapse the Iranian regime,” published in The Telegraph.

In his op-ed, Brodsky writes that although the deaths of Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian are significant, they do not alter the Islamic Republic's fundamental power structures. The incident does, however, prompt speculation about succession politics surrounding Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with the top candidate to replace him being his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, among other candidates. Brodsky predicts some potential shifts in leadership dynamics due to Raisi’s absence, but the trajectory of Iran’s governance remaining consistent. 

“With Raisi gone, the stock of other individuals to succeed him will naturally rise,” Brodsky writes. “Attention will turn to Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader’s powerful son, who until now has preferred to operate in the shadows and lacks the political persona of Raisi. There are dangers here for the regime. If the supreme leadership passes to Khamenei’s son it will inevitably draw comparisons to the monarchy – which the Islamic Revolution overthrew in 1979. There have also been complaints from the IRGC about Mojtaba intervening in state affairs and there may be pushback if he is promoted.”

Writing in The Telegraph, Wallace and Aarabi emphasize the internal chaos and vulnerability revealed within the clerical regime following Raisi’s death. Although Khamenei has made efforts to consolidate power, recent events have revealed the regime’s incompetence and vulnerabilities. Wallace and Aarabi encourage the West to support the Iranian people celebrating Raisi’s demise by considering covert actions to undermine the regime and empower those looking toward a more democratic future.

“Instead of offering condolences to the regime – as EU officials have shamelessly done – the West should be focusing on the Iranian people in its public diplomacy,” Wallace and Aarabi write. “It should be amplifying the calls of the Iranian people for an end to the Islamic Republic. Simultaneously, the U.S. government and its allies should consider covert operations – both cyber and kinetic – to exacerbate the divisions within the regime’s elite and embolden the Iranian people against the regime. Make no mistake: the collapse of the Islamic Republic will be the single most liberating event for the Iranian people, the Middle East and global security.”

To read Raisi’s death has ruined the Ayatollah’s succession plans, please click here. 

To read The West must strike now, and collapse the Iranian regime, please click here.