What is the context of Iran's leadership crisis?
When NPR caught up with a woman named Shadi in Tehran, she was hoarse. Last night, we screamed so hard from the windows that I don't have a voice anymore, she said. I screamed, Khamenei is killed, she said. I was shouting from the bottom of my heart, from the depths of my diaphragm. Shadi asked not to be identified by her full name because she was worried she could be arrested by Iran's regime.
for speaking to the Western media. And that gets to a complication of this moment after the killing of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, during the U.S.-Israeli airstrike campaign. Many people are relieved or exhilarated that the Ayatollah is dead, but the regime he led is still very much intact.
This is not a personalized dictatorship. This is an ideological system with a multilayered cadre.
That's Ray Takei, senior fellow for the Middle East Studies Council on Foreign Relations.
I think you can engage in decapitation exercises, as was done in this particular strike, but the regime is resilient enough to be able to replace depleted cadres.
And sure enough, on Sunday, barely 24 hours after Khamenei's death, a spokesperson for Iran's foreign ministry told NPR that Iran would soon have a new leader. Here's Ismail Bagayi.
The Council of Experts should consider elect the new supreme leader. We hope that that would be done within the next few days, I hope.
There is no guarantee a new leader would be any better for the people of Iran than the last one, as President Trump acknowledged in the Oval Office on Tuesday. I guess the worst case would be we do this and then somebody takes over who's as bad as the previous person, right? That could happen. Consider this. The future of Iran hangs on an important question. Who will be its next leader?
We will look at how succession could unfold. From NPR, I'm Scott Detrow. It's Consider This from NPR. As you may know, the United States has a detailed line of succession in case the president dies in office. starting with the vice president all the way down to the most recently created cabinet position, the Department of Homeland Security secretary.
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