Death of president in helicopter crash comes as Iran already faces huge challenges

Iran faces Western opposition over its nuclear programme, a dire economy, and tense relations with other Middle Eastern states

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash. Picture: AP /Vahid Salemi

The death of the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash comes at a time when the country, faced by unprecedented external challenges, was already bracing itself for a change in regime, with the expected demise in the next few years of its 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the country’s hydra-headed leadership where power is spread in often opaque ways between clerics, politicians and army, it is the supreme leader, and not the president, that is ultimately decisive.