The death of President Ebrahim Raisi couldn’t have come at a “more unstable time” for both Iran and the region, according to CNN’s Chief International Anchor Christiane Amanpour.
International outlook
Raisi’s death comes as Israel’s war against Hamas continues into its eighth month, fueling a spiraling humanitarian catastrophe and sending regional tensions soaring.
“The perennial shadow war between Israel and Iran that had been going on broke into the open over the last several weeks,” Amanpour said.
“You can imagine for the United States, for the west, one of the most important issues is the Iran nuclear issue,” she added.
Raisi took the presidency as negotiations with the US over how to revive the 2015 nuclear deal stalled.
“We understand over the last week or so… that the International Atomic Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear agency, that they (US) were back in talks with Iran to make sure that everything was happening within the nuclear regulation,” Amanpour said.
“It’s known that the United States is trying to stabilize issues with Iran, given the volatility of the region right now.”
Domestic outlook
“Iran faces internal protests and discontent that have been crushed brutally in the aftermath of Mahsa Amini’s death,” Amanpour said, referring to the 22-year-old woman who died in the custody of Iran’s morality police after being arrested for allegedly not wearing her headscarf properly.
“And that was under the direction of Raisi, the Supreme Leader and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.”
Amanpour noted that Raisi was at one point considered a successor to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 85.
“Raisi was then considered to have somewhat disqualified himself given the political and popular uprising against him inside Iran. As well as the economy being really bad for the people, he is not considered to have brought prosperity at all to the Iranian nation,” Amanpour said.
Raisi was no stranger to political crackdowns and was heavily involved in repression in the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution that turned the country into an Islamic republic.
“He had been overseeing some of the trials of the revolution and at one point signing off on one that led to the execution of thousands of anti-regime officials,” Amanpour said.
Watch Christiane Amanpour’s full analysis:
