Iran: after his enthronement, Ebrahim Raïssi will be sworn in before Parliament

The new Iranian president, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi, will be sworn in on Thursday before Parliament and attempt during his four-year term to restore an economy undermined by US sanctions and the health crisis. This 60-year-old traditionalist cleric is close to the Supreme Guide, whose political line he should follow to the letter.

Winner of the presidential election in June marked by a record abstention, the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raïssi succeeds the moderate Hassan Rohani. The new strongman of the regime is sworn in on Thursday, August 5, in front of Parliament, to which he will have to present his candidates for ministerial posts. Former head of the Judicial Authority, he officially began his four-year term on Tuesday, after his election was approved by the Supreme Leader.

“We will certainly seek to obtain the lifting of oppressive sanctions, but we will not tie the living conditions of the nation to the will of foreigners,” he warned during a ceremony broadcast by state television.

“We believe that the economic situation is not favorable for the people, both because of the enmity of the enemies and because of the shortcomings and problems inside the country,” he admitted afterwards. taking office.

Elected in June, after failing in the previous presidential election in 2017 against Hassan Rohani, Ebrahim Raïssi is close to Supreme Guide Ali Khamenei, of which he was a student at the seminary. Although he wears the turban, he is not an Ayatollah, but a hodjatoleslam, a rank of the lower Shia clergy. He is also a seyyed – a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad in Shia Islam – which allows him to wear the black-colored turban, a distinction popular with the pious electorate.

Placed in key positions of power

The new Iranian president is a trusted man of the Guide. Like him, he is from the holy city of Mashhad. Also, it is no coincidence that Ebrahim Raïssi was propelled in 2016 by Ali Khamenei to the management of the powerful religious foundation Astan Quds Razavi, manager of the mausoleum of Imam Reza – the eighth successor of the prophet according to Twelver Shiites – located in the same city of Mashhad, in northeastern Iran. He will spend three years there.

This major Shiite pilgrimage site drains billions of euros in donations that the Astan Quds Razavi organization is responsible for making fruitful. The foundation, which functions as both a charity and a holding company, owns a multitude of real estate, farmland and businesses in fields as diverse as construction, tourism or agribusiness. To take the head of this foundation is to lead an economic empire. What Ebrahim Raïssi will do for three years, before being called by the Supreme Guide to new functions.

In March 2019, this time he was appointed head of the Iranian Judicial Authority. Another influential post for Ebrahim Raïssi, charged by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to fight vigorously “against corruption”.

Loyal as usual, since taking office he has been increasing the number of widely publicized corruption trials targeting high state officials – but also, as a new thing, judges. Trials that allow him in passing to oust some sizeable political opponents, like his predecessor at the head of the judicial system, Sadeq Larijani, whose close advisor found himself embroiled in one of these corruption scandals tried in court. Sadeq Larijani being none other than the brother of Ali Larijani, tipped for the presidential election, but whose candidacy was rejected by the Council of Guardians, probably because of this family affair.

Ebrahim Raïssi has made the fight against corruption one of his campaign slogans. In a statement, he presented himself as “the adversary of corruption, inefficiency and aristocracy”, and had promised to fight relentlessly “against poverty” if elected.

A figure hostile to the West

During his tenure, this supporter of a “statist” vision should not advocate for the opening of the Iranian economy to foreign investors.

“Iran under Ebrahim Raïssi should continue to invest in infrastructure, water, electricity and health with an economy dominated by the foundations it knows well and the Revolutionary Guards [qui possèdent eux aussi de nombreuses entreprises]”, analyzed the economist and Iran specialist Thierry Coville.

Several researchers estimate that these parastatal actors currently represent more than 50% of the Iranian economy, but that the phenomenon remains difficult to quantify because these companies do not present “clear traceability” and operate in a “clientelist system”.

As for the Iranian nuclear agreement currently being negotiated, although defying the West, Ebrahim Raïssi should not clearly oppose it, believes Thierry Coville, who recalls that it is “the Supreme guide who sets the tone for these negotiations “.

A religious “traditionalist”

On the issue of openness, the ultraconservative, described as a “traditionalist”, is supported by supporters of the hard line. His stepfather is none other than Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, the representative of the Guide in the province of Khorasan (northeast). Known for its austerity, the cleric had distinguished himself in 2016 by the ban on Iranian pop concerts in the city of Mashhad, placed under his religious authority, whereas these, in full swing, had been authorized in the other big cities of a modernized Iran.


Among human rights organizations and more particularly among the Iranian diaspora, the name of Ebrahim Raïssi, who recalls the dark hours of the Islamic Republic, still makes people tremble.

The ultra-conservative, who has held responsibilities for more than two decades within the judicial system, including that of deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court of Tehran at the end of the 1980s, notably participated as a judge in a series of trials policies in 1988, after which several hundred imprisoned opponents were executed. A judicial past that his opponents still criticize him today, but which gives him even more legitimacy in the eyes of the most conservative.

Possible successor to the Supreme Leader

Some even see him as a probable successor to the Guide. Passed to the head of the financial empire of the Foundation of the mausoleum of Imam Reza, then at the heart of the Iranian judicial system, Ebrahim Raïssi has also recently been the elected vice-president of the Assembly of Experts, the body in charge of to propose a Supreme Leader in the event of the disappearance of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

By winning the presidential election, he acquired the legitimacy of the people which he still lacked. As a reminder, Ali Khamenei was himself President of the Islamic Republic when he was called to occupy the post of Supreme Leader in 1989, upon the death of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The advanced age of Ali Khamenei, 82, and questions about his state of health suggest that the new president could be the one who will live the succession of the number one of the Iranian state. Also, his election could ultimately serve as a springboard for Ebrahim Raïssi to serve as Supreme Guide.

With AFP

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