According to Ray Takeyh, the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader has likely already designated as a successor one Ibrahim Raisi, who is anything but a moderate:
It is often suggested that the most consequential barrier to Iranian pragmatism is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once the elderly Khamenei passes from the scene, the argument goes, his successors will embrace prevailing international norms. The sun-setting restrictions of the nuclear deal need not be of concern, for a revamped Islamist regime will find global integration too tempting to discard for the sake of nuclear arms.
The only problem with such expectations is that the candidate Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards are grooming to ascend to the post of supreme leader is one of the most reactionary members of Iran’s ruling elite. . . . [Ibrahim Raisi] has spent his entire career in the Islamic Republic’s enforcement arm. . . . In one of his most notorious acts, he served as a member of the “death commission” that, in the summer of 1988, oversaw the massacre of thousands of political prisoners on trumped-up charges. . . .
The 2009 uprising may be a faded memory in Washington, but it was a watershed event for the guardians of the theocracy. Under Khamenei’s watchful eye, Iran is being transformed into a police state. The logical extension of these developments is a supreme leader who comes from the heart of Iran’s repressive organs. . . .
This leader has to share their penchant for conspiracy theories, demonstrate contempt for the West, and be prepared to shed blood on behalf of the regime. The next supreme leader not only has to believe in the theocracy’s mission of repression but also have been an integral part of that machinery. No one in the Islamic Republic embodies these attributes more than Raisi. He seems to be the right man for the right time.
Read more on Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/irans-likely-next-supreme-leader-is-no-friend-of-the-west/2016/09/26/eb3becc0-79fb-11e6-bd86-b7bbd53d2b5d_story.html?utm_term=.b80bffa42f28