Raisi: Supreme leader's protege

TEHRAN

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-liner protege 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, launched a major attack on Israel and experienced mass protests, has died. He was 63.

Always piously dressed in a black turban and religious robe, the Iran's ultraconservative president took office during a tumultuous period of confrontation abroad and mass protest at home.

The Iranian president, whose career started in the years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and who is close to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took power in a 2021 election.

With Raisi's death, the only other person so far suggested has been Mojtaba Khameini, the 55-year-old son to the supreme leader. However, some have raised concerns over the position being taken only for the third time since 1979 to a family member, particularly after the Islamic Revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah.

Like Khamenei, Raisi has often spoken up defiantly as Iran, the biggest Shiite Muslim power, has been in a tense standoff with its declared arch foes the U.S. and Israel.

He succeeded the moderate Hassan Rouhani, whose signature achievement was a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that gave Iran relief from international sanctions.

Like other ultraconservatives, Raisi harshly criticized his predecessor's camp after then-president Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear pact in 2018 and reimposed punishing sanctions on Iran. Raisi took the reins of a country in social and economic crisis.

After portraying himself as a corruption-fighting champion of the poor, Raisi announced austerity measures that caused a sharp increase in the price of some staples, triggering anger at the high cost of living.

Then, in late 2022, a wave of nationwide protests erupted following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini after her arrest for allegedly breaching Iran's strict Islamic dress code for women.

In a landmark event in March 2023, Iran and Saudi Arabia, long-time regional foes, announced a surprise deal that restored diplomatic relations.

But the Gaza war that broke out on Oct. 7 between Israel and Hamas sent regional tensions soaring again, and tit-for-tat escalations led to Tehran launching hundreds of missiles and rockets directly at Israel last month.

Born in 1960 in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, Raisi as young man, with a salt-and-pepper beard and thin glasses, studied theology and Islamic jurisprudence under Khamenei.