Still reeling in shock from the sudden death, in an obsolete helicopter, of the Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi – the Butcher of Tehran, the mullahs are desperately trying to organize hasty presidential elections to find a replacement. Already the situation has developed into a farce, with state-run newspapers describing the election race as a “stand-up comedy” and “a show”! Out of the 80 people who originally registered as potential candidates, only six have been allowed to stand, all deemed to be suitably loyal to the diktats of the aging and increasingly irrational Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The resulting power-struggle, as the six candidates vie for public attention, has become an embarrassing circus, as one after another they repeat identical pledges to “continue the program of the Martyr Raisi” and to “implement the policies of the Supreme Leader.”

Continuing the program of Ebrahim Raisi is hardly likely to be a vote winner amongst the 85 million Iranians who have suffered decades of oppression by the mullahs. Raisi, renowned as a bloodstained executioner of more than 30,000 political prisoners in 1988, demonstrated his expertise in murdering innocent opponents during his term in office. Last year, 864 people were executed in Iran, a 48 percent increase on the previous year. He accelerated the fundamentalist regime’s proxy warmongering in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Lebanon and Gaza. He sponsored international terrorism worldwide, including almost certainly authorizing the attempted assassination of the leading Spanish politician and vocal supporter of the Iranian opposition – Alejo Vidal Quadras, last November. He endorsed the hostage-taking of........

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