DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protégé of the country's supreme leader who helped oversee the mass executions of thousands in 1988 and later led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels and launched a major drone-and-missile attack on Israel, has died. He was 63.
His arrival came after Rouhani's signature nuclear deal with world powers remained in tatters after then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew America from the accord, setting in motion years of renewed tensions between Tehran and Washington. He added: “The policy of ‘maximum oppression’ is still on. We want nothing more than what is rightfully ours.”
Then came the 2023 Israel-Hamas war, in which Iranian-backed militias targeted Israel. Tehran launched an extraordinary attack itself on Israel in April, in which hundreds of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles fired. Israel, the U.S. and its allies shot down the projectiles, but it showed just how much the yearslong shadow war between Iran and Israel had boiled.
At Raisi’s appointment to the foundation, Khamenei called him a “trustworthy person with high-profile experience.” That led to analyst speculation that Khamenei could be grooming Raisi as a possible candidate to be Iran’s third-ever supreme leader, a Shiite cleric who has final say on all state matters and serves as the country’s commander-in-chief.
Raisi was defiant when asked at a news conference after his election about the 1988 executions, which saw sham retrials of political prisoners, militants and others that would become known as “death commissions.”
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