Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian died in a helicopter crash yesterday. The two had just concluded a visit to neighboring Azerbaijan when the helicopter carrying them crashed in mountainous terrain amid heavy fog in eastern Iran.

First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is now interim president and has to organize elections for a permanent replacement within 50 days of Raisi’s death.

Will this change anything? Despite the title, the president doesn’t set policy as much as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s chief enforcer. Khamenei is still in charge; whoever replaces Raisi will still follow the ayatollah’s lead.

But Raisi was close to the 85-year-old Khamenei, and many thought Khamenei was grooming him to succeed as supreme leader.

What does this mean for the Middle East? Many of the region’s most notorious terror groups, including Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, depend on Iran for leadership and sponsorship of money and weapons. Their ultimate paymaster is Khamenei, who is still in charge.

But anything that affects Iranian leadership will have some ripple effect on the wars of Iran’s proxies. What the deaths of Raisi and Amir-Abdollahian mean in the long term remains to be seen. But the Trumpet expects Iran to continue leading Islamic terrorism regardless of which man is in charge.

To learn why, read our Trends article “Why the Trumpet Watches Iran and Europe Heading for a Clash of Civilizations.”