Khamenei Calls for Election of a President Prioritizing 'Strategic Depth Stabilization'

Ali Khamenei, referring to the upcoming elections, called for the election of a president who, according to him, would prioritize the 'stabilization of the strategic depth' of the Islamic Republic. The Supreme Leader, speaking on Monday, June 4, at the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death, the founder of the Islamic Republic, stated that the system 'needs an active, hardworking, knowledgeable president who believes in the principles of the revolution' to maintain its interests in complex international equations and stabilize its strategic depth. He also requested that the next president 'should be able to fill economic and cultural gaps.' The fourteenth presidential election is scheduled for July 8, to replace Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash on May 30 along with the Foreign Minister and six others in East Azerbaijan. In recent years, Khamenei has repeatedly emphasized expanding the Islamic Republic's influence in the region through increased support for affiliated militia groups, stating that 'the supporters of the Islamic Republic in the region are our strategic depth.' Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president and ally of the Islamic Republic, recently confirmed this issue. Khamenei's emphasis on prioritizing the 'strategic depth of the system' over addressing the economic problems of the people comes as Iranian citizens have expressed their opposition to this trend during various protests by chanting 'Not Gaza, Not Lebanon, My Life for Iran.' The Supreme Leader has always spoken about increasing pressure on Israel as his main priority, and in his speech on Monday, he referred to the extremist group Hamas's attack on civilians in southern Israel as a 'great popular attack' that 'happened at the right time.' The Hamas group, recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S. and the EU, killed about 1,200 Israelis, most of whom were civilians, and took around 240 hostages in an attack on residential areas in southern Israel on October 7. Khamenei dedicated another part of his speech on Monday to praising Ebrahim Raisi, claiming that this former president 'made Iran more prominent in the eyes of political figures worldwide.' This claim comes as images from the memorial service for Ebrahim Raisi at the UN General Assembly showed many empty seats, indicating low attendance. Vedant Patel, the U.S. State Department's deputy spokesperson, also noted that the low presence of countries at Raisi's memorial reflected 'the status of the Islamic Republic' in the international arena. Khamenei further stated, 'I felt sorry for Raisi. Political currents praised him after his death, but during his life, they were not willing to say a word about his services; rather, they said the opposite. He often did not respond, but sometimes he came to me and complained a bit.' The remarks by the Supreme Leader regarding Raisi's 'services' come amid a record of Raisi's 34-month presidency marked by the collapse of the national currency, deepening housing crises, and efforts to strengthen the power of seminaries, especially in Iran's education system. His presidency also saw a surge in the implementation of death sentences alongside an unprecedented crackdown on popular protests in the country. Khamenei described Hamas's surprise attack on Israeli territory on October 7 last year as 'a necessity for the region.' These statements appear to be the clearest support Khamenei has expressed in the past eight months for the planned attack by Hamas's leadership on Israeli territory. The Hamas group is recognized as a terrorist organization by the U.S., the EU, and several Western countries. Khamenei stated that Hamas's operation 'nullified the West's plans' and 'a major international conspiracy for the region' and was 'a necessity' that 'thwarted efforts for normalization.' He added, 'The region needed this operation exactly,' 'it was carried out at the right time,' and 'a response was necessary.' The Gaza war, which began after Hamas's attack, has led to widespread destruction of buildings and infrastructure in Gaza, displacing the majority of the 2.3 million Palestinian residents of this besieged area, with the death toll in Gaza exceeding 36,000 and the number of injured reaching nearly 90,000. Nevertheless, Khamenei called Hamas's operation a 'miracle' and claimed, 'The whole world is seeing that Israel is coming to an end.' Khamenei's satisfaction with the 'heavy blow' to the normalization process of relations between Israel and Arab countries comes as U.S. officials have recently emphasized that a sustainable ceasefire in the Gaza war would make normalization of relations between Israel and Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, possible. Arab and Islamic countries that have political relations with Israel, such as the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Jordan, and Egypt, maintained these relations during the Gaza war, while Qatar, which apparently has no relations with Israel, has been one of the main mediators in the indirect negotiations between Israel and the extremist group Hamas.