Iran’s leadership is “embarrassed” by the optics of the Ayatollah’s son becoming the main contender to replace him following the death of the country’s president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash, an expert says.
Raisi, who was a frontrunner to eventually take over from the country’s Supreme Leader, perished alongside Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other officials when the helicopter they were in crashed on Sunday, according to state media.
It’s now thought Ali Khamenei’s son Mojtaba Khamenei has a much easier path to inheriting leadership of the country from his father, a fact that will be a tough sell to the Iranian people.
Speaking to The Daily Express, Middle East expert Dr Nader Hashemi says Mojtaba’s new frontrunner status is “embarrassing” for the Islamic Republic because it is now put in the position “where it will be perceived as a heredity monarchy.”
Ali Khamenei, the current head of state, inherited control from his father, Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the revolution that ousted the royal family in 1979, and the Georgetown academic says Mojtaba taking the reigns would bring uncomfortable comparisons to a monarchic dynasty.
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