Iran's New Leader Faces an Existential Economic Crisis

With a month to go before his swearing in, Iran’s president-in-waiting Ebrahim Raisi is getting daily intimations of the many problems that await him: American missile attacks against Iranian proxy militias in Iraq and Syria, an Israeli drone attack on a centrifuge factory near Tehran, stalling negotiations with the world powers in Vienna, and calls for inquiries into his culpability in the country’s 1988 mass execution of political prisoners.

But arguably the most pressing predicament facing the next leader of the Islamic Republic is one that’s getting little attention outside the country. Strikes and protests have broken out in Iran’s critical petroleum industry, where workers are fed up with low wages and poor working conditions. The unrest underscores the gravity of the economic crisis confronting Raisi. It could also precipitate a serious political crisis at the start of his presidency.