Ebrahim Raisi
Crowds gather across Iran to mark the anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy, chanting “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” and burning American and Israeli flags.
Raisi calls for the United States to end its sanctions policy, calling it a “new way of war” and a “crime against humanity.”
The collapse of the Afghan military could serve as further motivation for Iran to target U.S.-allied Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as well as countries like Jordan.
Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, joined the head of the IRGC in praising Hezbollah for its recent rocket attack on Israel, as well as hailing the terrorists in Gaza.
Iran’s hardliners now control all three branches of government: the judiciary, the legislative and the executive.
“The political discourse in Iran since 2017 has shifted from reform to revolution,” said Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iran expert and senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The low-intensity war between Israel and Iran has come out of the shadows as the Islamic Republic signals its intention to plant its stake as a regional superpower by installing an ultra-conservative president, and by continuing to attack Israeli and foreign targets at sea.
Ebrahim Raisi, set to be sworn in on Aug. 5, will have a week to get his cabinet approved by parliament.
Outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says that the 2018 Mossad seizure of nuclear documents from Tehran caused the former U.S. president to withdraw from the JCPOA.
Ministry spokesman Lior Hayat decries the European Union’s “poor judgment” in legitimizing the presidency of the “Butcher of Tehran.”
Ely Karmon, a senior research scholar at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Herzliya, argued that Israel’s response in this case should be focused on the diplomatic-political front, and not the military one.
The Islamic Republic is pursuing a highly organized pursuit of its long-term nuclear goals and feels that events are generally moving in its direction, warns Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall, an expert on Iranian strategic issues.
